This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
Wow, was July a great month for comics. Huge, huge weeks every week, almost. I didn't even read everything available in the last week of July, so it's possible some of that stuff might pop up in August. With the announcement of The Spirit ending (yeah, I know it continues beyond #12, but without Darwyn Cooke, I can't imagine anyone making it work), there's not much hope for DC in my Top 20 future. Even amongst those that didn't make the cut, there's only one DC book, by Mark Waid and George Perez. However, five of them are Vertigo (well, one Wildstorm), which means DC the company still owns 25% of my Top 20. So does Marvel, actually, based on all four of the Annihilation books (I love Conquest) and the first issue of The Order. There are also five books on my "just missed it" list from Marvel. I hate to admit it, but Marvel has my attention right now. Then again, Dark Horse has 25% of the list too, with two of their four Star Wars books (and all of them are good), the always-excellent BPRD, the short but sweet Grendel Behold the Devil and a fantastic standalone Buffy the Vampire Slayer issue. The other 25%? Mostly Image, with one Oni book for flavor. Either I'm missing a lot of good indy books (and I don't think I am), or July was a month where not many indys were published. There were three books (Green Arrow Year One #1, Repo #2 and Spirit #8) that would have made the cut in almost any other month, and then there are exceptionally good books like Brave And The Bold #5, Captain America #28, Hack Slash Series #3, Invincible #44, Marvel Adventures Hulk #1, New Warriors #2, Runaways #27 (yep, back on board), X-Men First Class Vol. 2 #2 and Zero Killer #1. Postcards and Silverfish nearly made the graphic novel cut, but I didn't read many more. Must have been the gigantic Harry Potter book I read that took my time.
Or maybe it was TV. I've started to really love Burn Notice, although I'd probably love it more if it were on F/X and truer to its source material instead of all USA'ed up. Still digging John From Cincinnati, but wondering if it's going anywhere. Big Love picked up for me a bit, but still isn't good enough to keep HBO if there wasn't something else I really wanted. Which Entourage isn't either, at this point. They're sliding down to the level of "good enough," which works for regular TV but not pay cable. Fortunately, I've grown addicted to movies on demand and I really liked Bill Maher's latest stand-up special, and I still want to like shows as much as I liked Deadwood, Sopranos, early Entourage, etc. Also still watching The 4400 and Rescue Me, though I probably wouldn't be if they were competing with a wider variety of stuff to watch. And with the addition of a bigger TV to my office, I've added Countdown, Daily Show and Colbert Report back into the background TV rotation. Still catching up on the rest of Freaks and Geeks as well. Also have the first DVD of Sandbaggers and Eureka, but haven't watched either yet.
A few new feeds this month. There's the shiny new Savage Critics site (so good I'm jealous), Ben Templesmith, John Hodgman, The Newshole (Keith Olbermann's site), The Process (Joe Infurnari's webcomic), Transmission-X (a webcomics site that features a lot of really good artists). I also added a new "Top 10" blogs for the ones that I read first, every time there's a new entry in Google Reader.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - July 25, 2007
Kind of bummed that three of the Image hardcovers I was hoping to get before San Diego (Invincible 3, Godland 1 and Elephantmen) didn't make their (already late) ship dates, but it's still a pretty good week.
Of course, I'll be on a plane, so I probably won't read most of these this week.
TOP FIVE
American Virgin Vol 2 Going Down TP (I've become more and more pleased with this book as it keeps going, and I'm looking forward to re-reading the second arc in trade)
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #1 (Maybe the best Conquest yet, with a "Dirty Dozen" in space feel)
Multiple Warheads #1 (Awesome, hilarious, imaginative work from Brandon Graham)
Postcards True Stories That Never Happened HC (Looking forward to this anthology, which has a great talent line-up)
Pulphope SC (I've gotten an early peek at my copy, and this thing looks amazing)
THE REST
Batman #666 (Morrison's Batman has been a bit disappointing, but anti-Christ vs. future Batman? OK, I'm there)
Black Summer #1 (Warren Ellis murders superheroes... not particularly interested, but that's what I thought about Thunderbolts too)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #5 (Standalone about a Buffy stand-in, I think this'll be a good read)
Doktor Sleepless #1 (Warren Ellis revisiting weird science/future ala Transmet? Now that I'm interested in)
Dust #1 (Nice Dave Dorman-esque art, alt-WWII/sci-fi concept from Image)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #2 (First issue was great, a look at an alien invasion from the ground level)
Green Arrow Year One #2 (Solid first issue, hoping for more action in the second)
Grendel Behold The Devil #0 (It'll be short and cheap, but it's great to see new Matt Wagner Grendel after all these years)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #4 (Loving this series more with each issue, and Fegredo's art is stunning)
Hiding In Time #1 (Witness protection via time travel... great concept)
Immortal Iron Fist #7 (Very much onboard this book after #6, I believe this is a standalone about a female Iron Fist in 15th century China)
Incredible Hulk #108 (Actually digging Pak's Hulk more than World War Hulk itself)
Invincible #44 (Digging this book again almost at the level I was in the beginning)
Love And Capes #5 (Fun, sweet, great cartooning, looking forward to another issue... and to getting a Love and Capes Toon Tumbler!)
Previews Vol XVII #8 (Down the Line will most likely be delayed a week by San Diego)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #18 (I'm enjoying all of the Star Wars books right now... KOTOR is my least favorite, and it's still pretty damn good)
Usagi Yojimbo #104 (Last couple issues of this have been great, even by Sakai's high standards)
Walking Dead #39 (Wow, lot of books I'd gone off for a while that have pulled me back... issue #38 was really good, and I'm interested in seeing what's next)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #2 (Loved the first issue of this... this issue is also good, if not as great as that one)
Of course, I'll be on a plane, so I probably won't read most of these this week.
TOP FIVE
American Virgin Vol 2 Going Down TP (I've become more and more pleased with this book as it keeps going, and I'm looking forward to re-reading the second arc in trade)
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #1 (Maybe the best Conquest yet, with a "Dirty Dozen" in space feel)
Multiple Warheads #1 (Awesome, hilarious, imaginative work from Brandon Graham)
Postcards True Stories That Never Happened HC (Looking forward to this anthology, which has a great talent line-up)
Pulphope SC (I've gotten an early peek at my copy, and this thing looks amazing)
THE REST
Batman #666 (Morrison's Batman has been a bit disappointing, but anti-Christ vs. future Batman? OK, I'm there)
Black Summer #1 (Warren Ellis murders superheroes... not particularly interested, but that's what I thought about Thunderbolts too)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #5 (Standalone about a Buffy stand-in, I think this'll be a good read)
Doktor Sleepless #1 (Warren Ellis revisiting weird science/future ala Transmet? Now that I'm interested in)
Dust #1 (Nice Dave Dorman-esque art, alt-WWII/sci-fi concept from Image)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #2 (First issue was great, a look at an alien invasion from the ground level)
Green Arrow Year One #2 (Solid first issue, hoping for more action in the second)
Grendel Behold The Devil #0 (It'll be short and cheap, but it's great to see new Matt Wagner Grendel after all these years)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #4 (Loving this series more with each issue, and Fegredo's art is stunning)
Hiding In Time #1 (Witness protection via time travel... great concept)
Immortal Iron Fist #7 (Very much onboard this book after #6, I believe this is a standalone about a female Iron Fist in 15th century China)
Incredible Hulk #108 (Actually digging Pak's Hulk more than World War Hulk itself)
Invincible #44 (Digging this book again almost at the level I was in the beginning)
Love And Capes #5 (Fun, sweet, great cartooning, looking forward to another issue... and to getting a Love and Capes Toon Tumbler!)
Previews Vol XVII #8 (Down the Line will most likely be delayed a week by San Diego)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #18 (I'm enjoying all of the Star Wars books right now... KOTOR is my least favorite, and it's still pretty damn good)
Usagi Yojimbo #104 (Last couple issues of this have been great, even by Sakai's high standards)
Walking Dead #39 (Wow, lot of books I'd gone off for a while that have pulled me back... issue #38 was really good, and I'm interested in seeing what's next)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #2 (Loved the first issue of this... this issue is also good, if not as great as that one)
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Clueless Emmy Voters Strike Again
Honestly, I'm so worn out by the bizarre Emmy choices every year I don't even have a good rant in me about it. There were a few pleasant surprises, but far too many snubs and too many "He got nominated for 24? But all he does is squint and yell!" type moments.
For more elaboration, most of which I agree with 100%, I point you to two of my favorite TV critics, Melanie McFarland and Alan Sepinwall.
For more elaboration, most of which I agree with 100%, I point you to two of my favorite TV critics, Melanie McFarland and Alan Sepinwall.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Tagged
Nate Southard, even knowing full well that my music tastes are nowhere near as defined as my tastes in comics, movies and TV, has tagged me with this meme, wherein I list my "my top 5 side 1, track 1 songs." Since I last had vinyl when I was about 14 (I won 6 albums from a radio station, including ZZ Top's Afterburner, Tears for Fears and some other stuff, none of it great), and I am strictly digital music now, what you've got is me searching my iTunes for Track 1 songs, organizing them by my star rating, and guessing around from there. Weep in shared shame at my utter lack of music sophistication!
1. American Idiot - Green Day, American Idiot
2. Sure Shot - Beastie Boys, Ill Communication
3. Beverly Hills - Weezer, Make Believe
4. All My Life - Foo Fighters, One by One
5. The Comeback - Shout Out Louds, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
And just for fun, here's all the stuff I came up with that didn't make the Top 5:
Let's Go Crazy - Prince, Purple Rain
Helter Skelter - U2, Rattle and Hum
Beers, Steers & Queers - Revolting Cocks, Beers, Steers & Queers
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen, Greatest Hits
Mess Around - Ray Charles, Ultimate Hits Collection
Invincible - OK Go, Oh No
Lapdance - N.E.R.D., In Search Of
Loser - Beck, Mellow Gold
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet, Jet
Stitched Up (Featuring John Mayer) - Herbie Hancock, Possibilities
Smack My Bitch Up - Prodigy, Fat of the Land
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III
Hells Bells - AC/DC, Back in Black
Someone to Love - Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather
Angry Anthem - The Forces of Evil, Friend or Foe?
I Feel You - Depeche Mode, Songs of Faith & Devotion
Satan is my Motor - Cake, Prolonging the Magic
Who Was In My Room Last Night? - Butthole Surfers, Independent Worm Saloon
Now I guess I'm supposed to tag people... people with blogs. But I don't know that many people with blogs, so I'm wussing out on that part. How about this... any of you out there who are reading and have blogs, tag yourself, email me a link and then I can later edit this and claim that I tagged you. :)
1. American Idiot - Green Day, American Idiot
2. Sure Shot - Beastie Boys, Ill Communication
3. Beverly Hills - Weezer, Make Believe
4. All My Life - Foo Fighters, One by One
5. The Comeback - Shout Out Louds, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
And just for fun, here's all the stuff I came up with that didn't make the Top 5:
Let's Go Crazy - Prince, Purple Rain
Helter Skelter - U2, Rattle and Hum
Beers, Steers & Queers - Revolting Cocks, Beers, Steers & Queers
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen, Greatest Hits
Mess Around - Ray Charles, Ultimate Hits Collection
Invincible - OK Go, Oh No
Lapdance - N.E.R.D., In Search Of
Loser - Beck, Mellow Gold
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet, Jet
Stitched Up (Featuring John Mayer) - Herbie Hancock, Possibilities
Smack My Bitch Up - Prodigy, Fat of the Land
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III
Hells Bells - AC/DC, Back in Black
Someone to Love - Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather
Angry Anthem - The Forces of Evil, Friend or Foe?
I Feel You - Depeche Mode, Songs of Faith & Devotion
Satan is my Motor - Cake, Prolonging the Magic
Who Was In My Room Last Night? - Butthole Surfers, Independent Worm Saloon
Now I guess I'm supposed to tag people... people with blogs. But I don't know that many people with blogs, so I'm wussing out on that part. How about this... any of you out there who are reading and have blogs, tag yourself, email me a link and then I can later edit this and claim that I tagged you. :)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - July 18, 2007
Holy crap does this look like a good week. I could have made a Top 15 of books I'm excited to read. In fact, what the hell, it's my blog, that's what I'm doing this week. And even the stuff in "The Rest" is really good. It's gonna be a good week.
TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest Quasar #1 (Another strong chapter in Annihilation, as Christos Gage does a riff on the chosen one in space with the new female Quasar and Moondragon)
Hood Blood From Stones Premiere HC (Great under-the-radar mini from Brian Vaughan and Kyle Hotz collected in new hardcover)
Intersections HC (Art book from Sean Phillips & Duncan Fegredo... I'm getting the hardcover, but there's a softcover available as well)
Super Villain Team Up Modoks 11 #1 (Fred Van Lente does a supervillain heist... sounds like fun)
Zero Killer #1 (Post-apocalyptic series from Dark Horse, artwork looks gorgeous and teaser in FCBD book was good)
NEXT TOP FIVE
Bone Vol 6 Old Mans Cave Color Ed SC (Getting closer to a complete set of color Bone)
Flight Vol 4 GN (Another volume of the always-impressive and gorgeous anthology)
Highwaymen #2 (First issue was a really strong action book, looking forward to #2)
Monster Attack Network GN (Same writers as Highwaymen, giant monsters vs. military attack squads... I'm in)
Spirit #8 (Darwyn Cooke returns!)
NEXT TOP FIVE
Captain America #28 (Very good, it's amazing how good the book can be even when the title character has been dead for three issues... the credit goes to Brubaker, Perkins, Epting and the rest of the creative team)
Giant Sized Marvel Adventures Avengers #1 (Agents of Atlas by Parker & Kirk is enough... that it also features Parker's Avengers is a bonus)
Goon #19 (Yay, the Goon returns! After the hilary of Satan's Sodomy Baby, I'm regular for a regular dose of Powell's madness and beautiful art again)
Repo #2 (Another strong first issue, can't wait to see the follow-up... Rick Spears, Rob. G, hells yeah)
Terminator 2 Infinity #1 (Curious to see how Dynamite does with a property I've always liked... their Lone Ranger take bodes well)
THE REST
Avengers Initiative #4 (Decent World War Hulk tie-in... book is still in the "solid enough" camp for me, not much more, but I'll keep reading)
Brave And The Bold #5 (Last issue lost me a bit, hope this one regains my interest the way it had it in the first two or three issues)
Hack Slash Series #3 (Enjoying this on a regular basis)
Hot Mexican Love Comics 2007 (Trying this on a whim, I liked some of the creators involved if I recall correctly)
Lone Ranger #7 (Want to catch up on this one, as soon as I read the trade)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #1 (Written by my friend Paul Benjamin, and the art I've seen looks great.)
Programme #1 (Soviet super-soldiers from Peter Milligan and CP Smith)
Scarface Devil In Disguise #1 (The origin of Tony Montana... with nice looking art)
Screw Heaven When I Die Im Going To Mars Tp (Shannon Wheeler gets a new collection of cartoons)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #4 (Jeff Smith finishes up his Shazam story)
Star Wars Dark Times #4 (It's late, but the art and story are always worth it)
Strange Embrace #2 (More creepy weird stuff from David Hine)
The Order #1 (Fun, if not knocked out of the park fun, first issue)
Thunderbolts Desperate Measures (Paul Jenkins, creator of Penance, writes. This makes me nervous, but it's Thunderbolts, it's art by Steve Lieber, and it features a character named Americop. I've got to at least give it a look)
Weapon #2 (First issue was kind of old school fun, flawed but entertaining)
World War Hulk #2 (Not completely onboard, but curious enough to see where it's going)
TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest Quasar #1 (Another strong chapter in Annihilation, as Christos Gage does a riff on the chosen one in space with the new female Quasar and Moondragon)
Hood Blood From Stones Premiere HC (Great under-the-radar mini from Brian Vaughan and Kyle Hotz collected in new hardcover)
Intersections HC (Art book from Sean Phillips & Duncan Fegredo... I'm getting the hardcover, but there's a softcover available as well)
Super Villain Team Up Modoks 11 #1 (Fred Van Lente does a supervillain heist... sounds like fun)
Zero Killer #1 (Post-apocalyptic series from Dark Horse, artwork looks gorgeous and teaser in FCBD book was good)
NEXT TOP FIVE
Bone Vol 6 Old Mans Cave Color Ed SC (Getting closer to a complete set of color Bone)
Flight Vol 4 GN (Another volume of the always-impressive and gorgeous anthology)
Highwaymen #2 (First issue was a really strong action book, looking forward to #2)
Monster Attack Network GN (Same writers as Highwaymen, giant monsters vs. military attack squads... I'm in)
Spirit #8 (Darwyn Cooke returns!)
NEXT TOP FIVE
Captain America #28 (Very good, it's amazing how good the book can be even when the title character has been dead for three issues... the credit goes to Brubaker, Perkins, Epting and the rest of the creative team)
Giant Sized Marvel Adventures Avengers #1 (Agents of Atlas by Parker & Kirk is enough... that it also features Parker's Avengers is a bonus)
Goon #19 (Yay, the Goon returns! After the hilary of Satan's Sodomy Baby, I'm regular for a regular dose of Powell's madness and beautiful art again)
Repo #2 (Another strong first issue, can't wait to see the follow-up... Rick Spears, Rob. G, hells yeah)
Terminator 2 Infinity #1 (Curious to see how Dynamite does with a property I've always liked... their Lone Ranger take bodes well)
THE REST
Avengers Initiative #4 (Decent World War Hulk tie-in... book is still in the "solid enough" camp for me, not much more, but I'll keep reading)
Brave And The Bold #5 (Last issue lost me a bit, hope this one regains my interest the way it had it in the first two or three issues)
Hack Slash Series #3 (Enjoying this on a regular basis)
Hot Mexican Love Comics 2007 (Trying this on a whim, I liked some of the creators involved if I recall correctly)
Lone Ranger #7 (Want to catch up on this one, as soon as I read the trade)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #1 (Written by my friend Paul Benjamin, and the art I've seen looks great.)
Programme #1 (Soviet super-soldiers from Peter Milligan and CP Smith)
Scarface Devil In Disguise #1 (The origin of Tony Montana... with nice looking art)
Screw Heaven When I Die Im Going To Mars Tp (Shannon Wheeler gets a new collection of cartoons)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #4 (Jeff Smith finishes up his Shazam story)
Star Wars Dark Times #4 (It's late, but the art and story are always worth it)
Strange Embrace #2 (More creepy weird stuff from David Hine)
The Order #1 (Fun, if not knocked out of the park fun, first issue)
Thunderbolts Desperate Measures (Paul Jenkins, creator of Penance, writes. This makes me nervous, but it's Thunderbolts, it's art by Steve Lieber, and it features a character named Americop. I've got to at least give it a look)
Weapon #2 (First issue was kind of old school fun, flawed but entertaining)
World War Hulk #2 (Not completely onboard, but curious enough to see where it's going)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Well, that's one way to deal with the hotel shortage...
This is gloriously insane. And I love it. Kudos, Jonah... you have raised the bar for all the other sites in terms of both impressive spectacle and imaginative logistics for the show.
I'll definitely be tuning in to those videos.
I'll definitely be tuning in to those videos.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - July 11, 2007
TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest Wraith #1 (So far, Annihilation Conquest is shaping up to be *better* than the original Annihilation, which is pretty impressive... the new character in this mini is interesting, and has great visuals courtesy of Kyle Hotz)
Bprd Garden Of Souls #5 (The latest BPRD mini concludes... fantastic, as always. Guy Davis is one of my favorite artists, and he just keeps getting better)
DMZ #21 (The latest in Wood's "Rashomon" style look at a civilian massacre in occupied New York, with Burchielli taking over full art duties on this chapter)
Fables #63 (The Flycatcher arc has been the best one in quite a while, last issue was terrific)
Nova #4 (Impressive new series, and the tie-in to Annihilation Conquest is a great read with a bit of a shocking twist)
THE REST
Clubbing GN (The latest Minx offering, written by Andi Watson with art by Josh Howard)
Fallen Angel Premiere Collection HC (Oversized collection of the IDW Fallen Angel, and I'm curious to give it a shot)
Green Arrow Year One #1 (Diggle & Jock team up for what is sure to be a low spandex, high action look at Green Arrow's origin)
Guardian Alpha One Shot (It's a line of multi-cultural Christian all-ages comics, which is interesting and different enough... but one of the guys behind it is Michael Davis, of Milestone Comics, which I loved... I'll give it a look)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 9 (Great suspense manga, new chapter)
Rex Libris TP (Space librarian tale from Slave Labor)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #20 (The final McKeever issue, curious to see his ending)
Star Wars Rebellion #8 (Loving this crime/espionage take on Star Wars)
Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #1 (At last, Colbert's goofy sci-fi parody comes to comics)
Superman Confidential #5 (Also running late, curious to see how the Cooke/Sale story wraps)
True Story Swear To God Vol 1 TP (This would rank higher, except that I've already read everything in it... but it's great)
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters TP (Liked what I read of this, decided to wait for the trade to read it complete... and here it is)
Xombie #3 (Surprisingly fun zombie/adventure story based on a webcomic, from Devil's Due)
Annihilation Conquest Wraith #1 (So far, Annihilation Conquest is shaping up to be *better* than the original Annihilation, which is pretty impressive... the new character in this mini is interesting, and has great visuals courtesy of Kyle Hotz)
Bprd Garden Of Souls #5 (The latest BPRD mini concludes... fantastic, as always. Guy Davis is one of my favorite artists, and he just keeps getting better)
DMZ #21 (The latest in Wood's "Rashomon" style look at a civilian massacre in occupied New York, with Burchielli taking over full art duties on this chapter)
Fables #63 (The Flycatcher arc has been the best one in quite a while, last issue was terrific)
Nova #4 (Impressive new series, and the tie-in to Annihilation Conquest is a great read with a bit of a shocking twist)
THE REST
Clubbing GN (The latest Minx offering, written by Andi Watson with art by Josh Howard)
Fallen Angel Premiere Collection HC (Oversized collection of the IDW Fallen Angel, and I'm curious to give it a shot)
Green Arrow Year One #1 (Diggle & Jock team up for what is sure to be a low spandex, high action look at Green Arrow's origin)
Guardian Alpha One Shot (It's a line of multi-cultural Christian all-ages comics, which is interesting and different enough... but one of the guys behind it is Michael Davis, of Milestone Comics, which I loved... I'll give it a look)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 9 (Great suspense manga, new chapter)
Rex Libris TP (Space librarian tale from Slave Labor)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #20 (The final McKeever issue, curious to see his ending)
Star Wars Rebellion #8 (Loving this crime/espionage take on Star Wars)
Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #1 (At last, Colbert's goofy sci-fi parody comes to comics)
Superman Confidential #5 (Also running late, curious to see how the Cooke/Sale story wraps)
True Story Swear To God Vol 1 TP (This would rank higher, except that I've already read everything in it... but it's great)
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters TP (Liked what I read of this, decided to wait for the trade to read it complete... and here it is)
Xombie #3 (Surprisingly fun zombie/adventure story based on a webcomic, from Devil's Due)
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
My Latest Entertainment
Over the past few days, I've watched one movie, seen one new TV show and read three big 'ol hardcovers. Two of them were things I've been anticipating that I was pretty pleased with, the other was a pleasant surprise that I picked up on thanks to good buzz.
TV:
Burn Notice (USA) - I'll be honest, despite enjoying The 4400, I don't really think of USA as a place for really great TV. So I wasn't overly hyped for Burn Notice, about a spy who gets "burned" by his agency and forced to stay in Miami, leading to him becoming something of a private detective/do-gooder with his skills.
But it turns out, the first episode was pretty damn good. Nice voiceover, some good wit, solid action, believable tradecraft and good writing and action overall. I watched it a couple days ago and I've been anxiously checking the Tivo for a new episode since, which means it's hooked me pretty good. Well worth checking out, and if you're the type of person for whom this is a plus, Bruce Campbell is in it.
Movies:
Transformers - I know, I know, shut up. But really, despite a pretty awful script and Michael Bay's ADD direction, this was pretty good at what it set out to do. I mean, I think it could have actually been a really good popcorn movie all the way through, as opposed to a weak movie that effectively pushed my giant robot/action movie fan buttons, but I can't deny that in general, the movie kept me smiling, especially when the robots were on screen. A couple really good action sequences on the road and in the air, and Peter Cullen doing the voice for Optimus Prime, helped a lot. Fun, and I can even see picking up the DVD to skip ahead and watch the action sequences from time to time. When the inevitable sequel comes out, I'll go and see it. Especially if there are different writers and a different director.
Comics:
I've been meaning to read Annihilation now that all three hardcovers are out, and finally got the chance to do so today. As it turns out, this is a pretty kickass superhero/space adventure epic. The miniseries are much stronger collected in one place, where you can see how they directly feed into the main story, and the main story has the exact scope I would hope for. Big explosive comics at their best, kicks the hell out of Infinite Crisis, Civil War and House of M combined.
TV:
Burn Notice (USA) - I'll be honest, despite enjoying The 4400, I don't really think of USA as a place for really great TV. So I wasn't overly hyped for Burn Notice, about a spy who gets "burned" by his agency and forced to stay in Miami, leading to him becoming something of a private detective/do-gooder with his skills.
But it turns out, the first episode was pretty damn good. Nice voiceover, some good wit, solid action, believable tradecraft and good writing and action overall. I watched it a couple days ago and I've been anxiously checking the Tivo for a new episode since, which means it's hooked me pretty good. Well worth checking out, and if you're the type of person for whom this is a plus, Bruce Campbell is in it.
Movies:
Transformers - I know, I know, shut up. But really, despite a pretty awful script and Michael Bay's ADD direction, this was pretty good at what it set out to do. I mean, I think it could have actually been a really good popcorn movie all the way through, as opposed to a weak movie that effectively pushed my giant robot/action movie fan buttons, but I can't deny that in general, the movie kept me smiling, especially when the robots were on screen. A couple really good action sequences on the road and in the air, and Peter Cullen doing the voice for Optimus Prime, helped a lot. Fun, and I can even see picking up the DVD to skip ahead and watch the action sequences from time to time. When the inevitable sequel comes out, I'll go and see it. Especially if there are different writers and a different director.
Comics:
I've been meaning to read Annihilation now that all three hardcovers are out, and finally got the chance to do so today. As it turns out, this is a pretty kickass superhero/space adventure epic. The miniseries are much stronger collected in one place, where you can see how they directly feed into the main story, and the main story has the exact scope I would hope for. Big explosive comics at their best, kicks the hell out of Infinite Crisis, Civil War and House of M combined.
Weekly Comics to Come - July 5, 2007
Delayed a day by Independence Day. Another large-ish week, although mostly that's because there's a ton of manga.
TOP FIVE
Astounding Wolf-Man Directors Cut #1 & #2 (Really dug this new series at Free Comic Book Day, and I've had the chance to read #2 and it's just as good)
Captain America War & Remembrance Tp (Fantastic collection of Roger Stern/John Byrne Cap... my second favorite run after Gruenwald)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #7 (Tom reacts to online reviews of his first book, which means I get to be on a page of the story, which is kind of cool... but not the reason I'm looking forward to reading the book - I just love the book)
Usagi Yojimbo Vol 21 Mother Of Mountains TP (Always glad to see more Usagi in trade, wish the whole thing was in print more often)
Y The Last Man #57 (As the book gets closer to its end, I'm really anxious to see the conclusion)
THE REST
All Star Superman #8 (The end of the first two-parter the book has done)
American Virgin #16 (Always great, love the art especially)
Batman Ego And Other Tales HC (Collection of great Darwyn Cooke work)
Battle O/t Bands (Fun looking manga from Steve Buccellato, it's on my reading table now)
Damned Vol 1 Three Days Dead TP (Demons meet prohibition gangsters... great read, terrific art by Brian Hurtt)
Dynamo 5 #5 (Not only is it a good read, it's a new series that comes out on time, which is especially nice)
Faker #1 (Intrigued by this college/horror story from Mike Carey and Jock)
New Warriors #2 (Second issue is a pretty solid follow-up to the first)
Runaways #27 (Back onboard a little, as Whedon's take on a super-powered turn of the century L.A. is kind of fun)
Silverfish HC (Lapham's Vertigo OGN... this would make my top five, except we were allocated so I'll probably have to wait a week or two to read it)
Union Jack London Falling TP (Solid action series in the Brubaker Cap vein by Gage and Perkins)
War Angels Vol 1 (Don't remember much, but Tokyopop's giving it a big push, and the visuals looked interesting)
TOP FIVE
Astounding Wolf-Man Directors Cut #1 & #2 (Really dug this new series at Free Comic Book Day, and I've had the chance to read #2 and it's just as good)
Captain America War & Remembrance Tp (Fantastic collection of Roger Stern/John Byrne Cap... my second favorite run after Gruenwald)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #7 (Tom reacts to online reviews of his first book, which means I get to be on a page of the story, which is kind of cool... but not the reason I'm looking forward to reading the book - I just love the book)
Usagi Yojimbo Vol 21 Mother Of Mountains TP (Always glad to see more Usagi in trade, wish the whole thing was in print more often)
Y The Last Man #57 (As the book gets closer to its end, I'm really anxious to see the conclusion)
THE REST
All Star Superman #8 (The end of the first two-parter the book has done)
American Virgin #16 (Always great, love the art especially)
Batman Ego And Other Tales HC (Collection of great Darwyn Cooke work)
Battle O/t Bands (Fun looking manga from Steve Buccellato, it's on my reading table now)
Damned Vol 1 Three Days Dead TP (Demons meet prohibition gangsters... great read, terrific art by Brian Hurtt)
Dynamo 5 #5 (Not only is it a good read, it's a new series that comes out on time, which is especially nice)
Faker #1 (Intrigued by this college/horror story from Mike Carey and Jock)
New Warriors #2 (Second issue is a pretty solid follow-up to the first)
Runaways #27 (Back onboard a little, as Whedon's take on a super-powered turn of the century L.A. is kind of fun)
Silverfish HC (Lapham's Vertigo OGN... this would make my top five, except we were allocated so I'll probably have to wait a week or two to read it)
Union Jack London Falling TP (Solid action series in the Brubaker Cap vein by Gage and Perkins)
War Angels Vol 1 (Don't remember much, but Tokyopop's giving it a big push, and the visuals looked interesting)
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
My Wife's Birthday
Today is my wife's birthday. There are a lot of things I love about my wife, but a few struck me right about the time I was going to bed, and I figured I'd put them up here on my blog, since I know she reads it.
1. She's intelligent - I love that when she writes in her blog, she'll drop words like hubris. Or that she picks up all this weird, interesting knowledge from Discovery Channel, various podcasts and reading the Internet and books.
2. She's tough - Seeing what she went through during the birth of our son just re-affirmed this, which I already knew. I was scared for her during the whole post-birth ordeal, but I watched her fight to stay awake, and worry about staying awake, even when she was in a whole lot of pain and the midst of a lot of confusion. And I know she'll fight like hell for her kids. Even in a lot of pain, on a lot of drugs, she wouldn't sign the form to admit Aaron over to the hospital. She knew she wanted to think about it. I was fully conscious, and I don't know if I would have thought about it before I just signed whatever they were putting in front of me.
3. She's understanding - While I stay up way too late every night, catching up on TV and the Internet, she doesn't gripe at me about coming to bed late. And even though she's got two kids to watch over, she lets me sleep in in the mornings, keeping my weird schedule of doing stuff at night and starting the day in the early afternoon.
4. She's principled - My wife will fight for her principles. She thinks about why she believes what she does, she'll argue those principles even with people who probably won't ever change their minds. I can sometimes have a hard time arguing with people, because I just don't care enough to change their minds, or I don't want to bother thinking about and defending my positions. I haven't ever seen Suzanne have that problem.
5. She gives me strength - Since I married Suzanne, I've had to take a leap of faith at a dream job by moving halfway across the country, I've had to suffer through some very unpleasant surgery, I've had plenty of job stress and I've worried about who knows how many small things. Knowing that she's there with me, that I've always got someone to talk to, makes it all possible.
Happy birthday, Suzanne. I love you.
1. She's intelligent - I love that when she writes in her blog, she'll drop words like hubris. Or that she picks up all this weird, interesting knowledge from Discovery Channel, various podcasts and reading the Internet and books.
2. She's tough - Seeing what she went through during the birth of our son just re-affirmed this, which I already knew. I was scared for her during the whole post-birth ordeal, but I watched her fight to stay awake, and worry about staying awake, even when she was in a whole lot of pain and the midst of a lot of confusion. And I know she'll fight like hell for her kids. Even in a lot of pain, on a lot of drugs, she wouldn't sign the form to admit Aaron over to the hospital. She knew she wanted to think about it. I was fully conscious, and I don't know if I would have thought about it before I just signed whatever they were putting in front of me.
3. She's understanding - While I stay up way too late every night, catching up on TV and the Internet, she doesn't gripe at me about coming to bed late. And even though she's got two kids to watch over, she lets me sleep in in the mornings, keeping my weird schedule of doing stuff at night and starting the day in the early afternoon.
4. She's principled - My wife will fight for her principles. She thinks about why she believes what she does, she'll argue those principles even with people who probably won't ever change their minds. I can sometimes have a hard time arguing with people, because I just don't care enough to change their minds, or I don't want to bother thinking about and defending my positions. I haven't ever seen Suzanne have that problem.
5. She gives me strength - Since I married Suzanne, I've had to take a leap of faith at a dream job by moving halfway across the country, I've had to suffer through some very unpleasant surgery, I've had plenty of job stress and I've worried about who knows how many small things. Knowing that she's there with me, that I've always got someone to talk to, makes it all possible.
Happy birthday, Suzanne. I love you.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Blog Template Update for June
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
As with May, it was a good month for comics. There was a fair amount of stuff that would have easily made a top 10 in a different month, including Elephantmen Pilot, two issues of Jack of Fables, Marvel Adventures Iron Man #2, Spirit #7, Strange Embrace #1, Walking Dead #38 and White Picket Fences #2. I didn't read quite as many graphic novels, but pretty much everything I read was really good.
May was a really good month for TV... June was a pretty suck month. I'm more on the "naysayer" vibe on The Sopranos finale (though it wasn't unexpected that it would lack any kind of closure), Big Love is kind of boring me in its second season and Entourage, while still enjoyable, may have peaked with season two's Aquaman/Mandy Moore story. Although the season four opening episode was pretty good. Rescue Me and The 4400 are both shows I like, but don't love. Haven't watched Flight of the Conchords at HBO yet (although several critics I respect dug it, so I might have to give it a shot on HBO In-Demand), but I have been digging the hell out of John From Cincinnati. In fact, it's easily my favorite show of the moment. I still miss Deadwood and think it's unfortunate Milch and HBO couldn't give that show a season or two more to wrap on its own, but John From Cincinnati has an interesting cast, a weird vibe I like and that Milch-esque dialogue, along with HBO's stellar production values. Makes me want to check out some of Kem Nunn's novels, actually.
With TV being so lame, I've turned to DVD a bit more. I'm finally watching all of Freaks and Geeks, based on my love of Knocked Up, 40-Year-Old Virgin and Undeclared, and while I'm still not as gaga over it as many of its fans, it is a really enjoyable show. I also got the complete Kitchen Confidential, and I think Fox was too quick on the trigger on that one. Good cast, funny writing, unusual setting... it wasn't a great sitcom, but it was a solidly good one. That still only fills up 7 slots on the Top 10 TV this month, and there just aren't any more. The only other things I've watched have been stuff I've put on in the background in my office while I'm working, like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (three times so far, I love this movie), Serenity and Beverly Hills Cop I & II.
Didn't have a ton of new feeds this month, but I've gotten to the point where I've started unsubscribing from some of my feeds because I don't have time to read them all, so there probably won't be a lot added. But I was delighted to jump onto the LOLcats bandwagon by adding the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" feed, which provides a guaranteed unicorn chaser in lolcat form everyday (OK, that's about as much leet-speak as a 36-year-old man is allowed in a month, and I apologize). Also added a blogger who linked to me on Comic Pants and/or Inside Joke Theatre and then I found their stuff and liked it, Noetic Concordance and added the new RSS feed for comic artist Mike Wieringo. Also, I can't believe it took me so long to add The Savage Critic to my RSS feeds. It's one of my favorite reads each day, and I agree with about 90% of the reviews there.
As with May, it was a good month for comics. There was a fair amount of stuff that would have easily made a top 10 in a different month, including Elephantmen Pilot, two issues of Jack of Fables, Marvel Adventures Iron Man #2, Spirit #7, Strange Embrace #1, Walking Dead #38 and White Picket Fences #2. I didn't read quite as many graphic novels, but pretty much everything I read was really good.
May was a really good month for TV... June was a pretty suck month. I'm more on the "naysayer" vibe on The Sopranos finale (though it wasn't unexpected that it would lack any kind of closure), Big Love is kind of boring me in its second season and Entourage, while still enjoyable, may have peaked with season two's Aquaman/Mandy Moore story. Although the season four opening episode was pretty good. Rescue Me and The 4400 are both shows I like, but don't love. Haven't watched Flight of the Conchords at HBO yet (although several critics I respect dug it, so I might have to give it a shot on HBO In-Demand), but I have been digging the hell out of John From Cincinnati. In fact, it's easily my favorite show of the moment. I still miss Deadwood and think it's unfortunate Milch and HBO couldn't give that show a season or two more to wrap on its own, but John From Cincinnati has an interesting cast, a weird vibe I like and that Milch-esque dialogue, along with HBO's stellar production values. Makes me want to check out some of Kem Nunn's novels, actually.
With TV being so lame, I've turned to DVD a bit more. I'm finally watching all of Freaks and Geeks, based on my love of Knocked Up, 40-Year-Old Virgin and Undeclared, and while I'm still not as gaga over it as many of its fans, it is a really enjoyable show. I also got the complete Kitchen Confidential, and I think Fox was too quick on the trigger on that one. Good cast, funny writing, unusual setting... it wasn't a great sitcom, but it was a solidly good one. That still only fills up 7 slots on the Top 10 TV this month, and there just aren't any more. The only other things I've watched have been stuff I've put on in the background in my office while I'm working, like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (three times so far, I love this movie), Serenity and Beverly Hills Cop I & II.
Didn't have a ton of new feeds this month, but I've gotten to the point where I've started unsubscribing from some of my feeds because I don't have time to read them all, so there probably won't be a lot added. But I was delighted to jump onto the LOLcats bandwagon by adding the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" feed, which provides a guaranteed unicorn chaser in lolcat form everyday (OK, that's about as much leet-speak as a 36-year-old man is allowed in a month, and I apologize). Also added a blogger who linked to me on Comic Pants and/or Inside Joke Theatre and then I found their stuff and liked it, Noetic Concordance and added the new RSS feed for comic artist Mike Wieringo. Also, I can't believe it took me so long to add The Savage Critic to my RSS feeds. It's one of my favorite reads each day, and I agree with about 90% of the reviews there.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 27, 2007
Another huge week, June has been busy for comics
TOP FIVE
Art Of Bone HC (Dark Horse's "Art Of" volumes are always impressive, and this will be no exception)
Criminal #7 (First issue of the new arc was fantastic, maybe even better than the previous arc, can't wait to see where it goes)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 2 Terror Trips SC (The other two volumes were very good)
Invincible #43 (All kinds of plot and character developments, great art)
Thunderbolts #115 (Best issue of the relaunch thus far, gorgeous art and a terrific superhero/supervillain fight or two)
THE REST
Annihilation Book 3 HC (Finally I can read the whole original Annihilation saga)
Collected Toupydoops TP (Really funny, smart read that is even better in collected form... review planned soon)
Daredevil #98 (Nice penultimate issue of the latest arc)
Fantastic Four #547 (McDuffie and Pelletier continue to impress)
Garth Ennis Streets Of Glory Preview (Curious to see what Ennis will do with a western and no boundaries, courtesy Avatar)
Green Lantern Sinestro Corps Special #1 (I haven't read Green Lantern in a while, but I'm curious about this new story)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #3 (Amazing art, interesting story)
Immortal Iron Fist #6 (Great conclusion to the first arc)
Jack Of Fables #12 (New story, now that Vegas and Jack Frost are wrapped... I think)
Lone Ranger Vol 1 TP (Been wanting to check back into this, gets good buzz)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #14 (Best Avengers title running)
Previews Vol XVII #7 (New Down the Line in the works)
Subculture #1 (New title from APE about geek culture, sounds fun)
Walking Dead #38 (Kirkman's Image books are always late, and then they always hit the same week... good thing I like both of them enough not to mind the weird scheduling)
White Picket Fences #2 ('50s alien invasion story continues, had a good first issue)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #1 (New ongoing, looking forward to checking it out and catching up with hardcover soon)
TOP FIVE
Art Of Bone HC (Dark Horse's "Art Of" volumes are always impressive, and this will be no exception)
Criminal #7 (First issue of the new arc was fantastic, maybe even better than the previous arc, can't wait to see where it goes)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 2 Terror Trips SC (The other two volumes were very good)
Invincible #43 (All kinds of plot and character developments, great art)
Thunderbolts #115 (Best issue of the relaunch thus far, gorgeous art and a terrific superhero/supervillain fight or two)
THE REST
Annihilation Book 3 HC (Finally I can read the whole original Annihilation saga)
Collected Toupydoops TP (Really funny, smart read that is even better in collected form... review planned soon)
Daredevil #98 (Nice penultimate issue of the latest arc)
Fantastic Four #547 (McDuffie and Pelletier continue to impress)
Garth Ennis Streets Of Glory Preview (Curious to see what Ennis will do with a western and no boundaries, courtesy Avatar)
Green Lantern Sinestro Corps Special #1 (I haven't read Green Lantern in a while, but I'm curious about this new story)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #3 (Amazing art, interesting story)
Immortal Iron Fist #6 (Great conclusion to the first arc)
Jack Of Fables #12 (New story, now that Vegas and Jack Frost are wrapped... I think)
Lone Ranger Vol 1 TP (Been wanting to check back into this, gets good buzz)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #14 (Best Avengers title running)
Previews Vol XVII #7 (New Down the Line in the works)
Subculture #1 (New title from APE about geek culture, sounds fun)
Walking Dead #38 (Kirkman's Image books are always late, and then they always hit the same week... good thing I like both of them enough not to mind the weird scheduling)
White Picket Fences #2 ('50s alien invasion story continues, had a good first issue)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #1 (New ongoing, looking forward to checking it out and catching up with hardcover soon)
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Support the CBLDF
Y'all may have heard about the Gordon Lee case, and that the CBLDF is about to go to trial to defend a retailer from some bullshit charges. If you haven't, you can find out a lot more by visiting Kady Mae (of Sequential Tart) and reading this post, wherein she says if she gets 40 or more emails from people who have donated $25 or more to the CBLDF, she will donate a $1000 at San Diego.
I've been meaning to re-up my membership in the CBLDF for a year now, and this was as good a chance as any, so I bought a membership for the store at the Advocate level. If you buy a membership at this level, you get a membership card with custom art (I can't remember the artist on this year's card, but previous editions have included Frank Miller, Will Eisner and Peter Kuper) as well as a T-shirt with the first amendment written out in the shape of the American flag.
Or you can donate $30 (I think) to the cause and get the shirt. Or donate whatever you can afford and get the satisfaction of helping free speech and comics. I don't linkblog a lot, partly because I'm too lazy to keep up, but this seemed like a link worth spreading to whoever's reading here, and also a good chance to remind folks that the CBLDF is an important organization that does good work.
I've been meaning to re-up my membership in the CBLDF for a year now, and this was as good a chance as any, so I bought a membership for the store at the Advocate level. If you buy a membership at this level, you get a membership card with custom art (I can't remember the artist on this year's card, but previous editions have included Frank Miller, Will Eisner and Peter Kuper) as well as a T-shirt with the first amendment written out in the shape of the American flag.
Or you can donate $30 (I think) to the cause and get the shirt. Or donate whatever you can afford and get the satisfaction of helping free speech and comics. I don't linkblog a lot, partly because I'm too lazy to keep up, but this seemed like a link worth spreading to whoever's reading here, and also a good chance to remind folks that the CBLDF is an important organization that does good work.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 20, 2007
TOP FIVE
Brave And The Bold #4 (Finally, the next chapter in the Mark Waid/George Perez superhero team-up tale)
Mantlo A Life In Comics (A tribute to Bill Mantlo, which looks really cool)
Repo #1 (New Rick Spears/Rob G book, probably my most anticipated read this week)
Spirit #7 (Disappointed it's not all Darwyn Cooke, but the guest artists include Jordi Bernet and Kyle Baker, so I can't complain too much)
True Story Swear To God #2.06 (The last issue was one of my favorites, I love this book)
THE REST
Annihilation Conquest Prologue (Looking forward to reading this, but kind of wanted to read the original Annihilation hardcovers first)
Captain America #27 (Good issue, although still nowhere near what I actually wanted from Cap)
Ex Machina #29 (I'm an issue or two behind, might start reading just trades, but it's still been a really good book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #2 (First issue was fun, if disjointed, but with great art)
Grendel Archive Edition HC (Collecting the original Grendel stuff, which I've never read)
Highwaymen #1 (Looking forward to this action miniseries from Wildstorm)
Incredible Hulk #107 (Solid issue, but I'm already losing interest in World War Hulk)
Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol 3 Digest TP (Collecting the second run by Jeff Parker, which includes several genius issues, like the Ego the Loving Planet issue)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #2 (First issue was solid, if not up to MA Avengers levels, and Iron Man isn't a dick... bonus!)
Maxwell Strangewell GG (The Fillbach Brothers craft a strange and intriguing new graphic novel)
Tales From The Crypt #1 (Papercutz relaunches the EC classic as an all-ages book... I'm curious, at least)
Tick 20th Ann Sp Ed #1 (Celebrating 20 years of the Tick, with a lot of guest talent... now if only there were consistent, well-produced trades of the early material)
Warhammer 40K Damnation Crusade #5 (Just read the first four issues a few weeks back and enjoyed them)
Warhammer Forge Of War #1 (Boom! takes on Warhammer Fantasy, and their Warhammer 40K comics have been good)
Wasteland #10 (Best enjoyed in trades, but a good read all around)
X-men Endangered Species One-Shot (If you've seen Children of Men, you know that opening scene where everybody was moping because the youngest man on Earth had died? This is like that, if that scene had been the entire movie, and if it had sucked. Seriously, bad art, boring story, it just sucks the life right out of the room.)
X-men First Class HC (Wasn't huge on Roger Cruz's art, but kept hearing nothing but good about Jeff Parker's stories, so I'll be checking this one out)
Brave And The Bold #4 (Finally, the next chapter in the Mark Waid/George Perez superhero team-up tale)
Mantlo A Life In Comics (A tribute to Bill Mantlo, which looks really cool)
Repo #1 (New Rick Spears/Rob G book, probably my most anticipated read this week)
Spirit #7 (Disappointed it's not all Darwyn Cooke, but the guest artists include Jordi Bernet and Kyle Baker, so I can't complain too much)
True Story Swear To God #2.06 (The last issue was one of my favorites, I love this book)
THE REST
Annihilation Conquest Prologue (Looking forward to reading this, but kind of wanted to read the original Annihilation hardcovers first)
Captain America #27 (Good issue, although still nowhere near what I actually wanted from Cap)
Ex Machina #29 (I'm an issue or two behind, might start reading just trades, but it's still been a really good book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #2 (First issue was fun, if disjointed, but with great art)
Grendel Archive Edition HC (Collecting the original Grendel stuff, which I've never read)
Highwaymen #1 (Looking forward to this action miniseries from Wildstorm)
Incredible Hulk #107 (Solid issue, but I'm already losing interest in World War Hulk)
Marvel Adventures Avengers Vol 3 Digest TP (Collecting the second run by Jeff Parker, which includes several genius issues, like the Ego the Loving Planet issue)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #2 (First issue was solid, if not up to MA Avengers levels, and Iron Man isn't a dick... bonus!)
Maxwell Strangewell GG (The Fillbach Brothers craft a strange and intriguing new graphic novel)
Tales From The Crypt #1 (Papercutz relaunches the EC classic as an all-ages book... I'm curious, at least)
Tick 20th Ann Sp Ed #1 (Celebrating 20 years of the Tick, with a lot of guest talent... now if only there were consistent, well-produced trades of the early material)
Warhammer 40K Damnation Crusade #5 (Just read the first four issues a few weeks back and enjoyed them)
Warhammer Forge Of War #1 (Boom! takes on Warhammer Fantasy, and their Warhammer 40K comics have been good)
Wasteland #10 (Best enjoyed in trades, but a good read all around)
X-men Endangered Species One-Shot (If you've seen Children of Men, you know that opening scene where everybody was moping because the youngest man on Earth had died? This is like that, if that scene had been the entire movie, and if it had sucked. Seriously, bad art, boring story, it just sucks the life right out of the room.)
X-men First Class HC (Wasn't huge on Roger Cruz's art, but kept hearing nothing but good about Jeff Parker's stories, so I'll be checking this one out)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The New Baby & The Scariest Day of My Entire Life
Well, as you can see by that picture on the right, the long-delayed (OK, only two days past due date, but Katy was early and we expected the same) new addition to the Lander family has arrived. Unfortunately, his arrival did not come as easily as Katy's, but the good news is that things seem OK now.
It was a bit of a rough week. On Sunday night, I was up way too late (as usual) and after finishing up the 2-disc Kitchen Confidential, I came to bed about 3:00 AM. Just about the time Suzanne's water broke and she realized the "gas pains" she'd been having were in fact labor. We grabbed our stuff, called my parents to come to the house and watch Katy and called the midwife.
At about 5:00, we headed to the birthing center. I could tell that Suzanne was in more pain this time, and that continued throughout. She was still remarkably calm, nothing like the screaming pregnant women you see in TV and movies, but I know her well enough to know that it hurt a lot more this time. Aaron hadn't made it easy on us... there was a miscarriage scare, a week of bedrest brought on by fears he was coming too early and then he waited a couple days to come out, and did so more painfully than asked for.
After he was born, at about 9:00 in the morning (8 lbs. 5 ounces), I noticed that there was a lot of blood. The midwives handed my son to me so they could attend to my wife, and I wasn't panicking, hoping that this was, if not normal, not a big deal. That all changed when one of them called an ambulance and I was told that they couldn't get the placenta out. That's when I went into "scared out of my goddamned mind" mode.
I don't think I fell apart, because I knew I couldn't afford to and Suzanne couldn't afford me too, but man was I panicking inside. We got into an ambulance, rode to St. David's, and left Aaron with the midwives to follow us in the car. I didn't get to ride in the back with Suzanne, I rode up front with the ambulance driver, worrying the whole time that it was taking us too long. Forget about all the movies you see where ambulances are careening down the road at breakneck speeds... when you're in the cab, and you think your wife might be bleeding out in the back, driving into oncoming traffic doesn't seem fast enough. It really did seem like we were doing like 30 mph, even though I know based on how fast we got to the hospital that it wasn't the case.
Same with going into the hospital. There were a couple techs, three nurses and one doctor in the room, but it wasn't the crazy fast-cut movement of ER or even Scrubs. Everybody was doing their job methodically, but at that point, I just didn't see the urgency I wanted. I'm sure it was there, but it all moved really slow for me. Fortunately, the doctor, Dr. Fitzwater, got the placenta out and got Suzanne onto some medications for the pain. She was allergic to some of the anti-biotics, which meant she got some Benadryl to control the reaction, and combined with a dizziness side effect from the pain medication and general loopiness from the loss of blood, I could tell she was kind of out of it. We all kept talking to her, though, and she stayed awake, and after what seemed like an excruciating amount of time, the doctors got her stabilized.
We were in the hospital for a couple of days, but we got to come home fairly quickly, and Suzanne seems to be feeling well and recovering nicely. She's stuck in bed for at least a few days, but she's able to feed Aaron and get him to sleep, and both her parents and my parents have been in to help with Katy. We've also got a great support system in my friends and in the Austinmamas, who have had an outpouring of offerings of support. Kind of funny, when we got home from the hospital, there was a phone message and an email from members of the listgroup, wondering if everything was OK because they hadn't heard from Suzanne in a couple days. My wife is what you call a frequent poster when she's involved with a list. :)
At any rate, it was a scary, awful day, but the end result is a recovering, soon to be fully healthy mom and a healthy, happy (by newborn standards) baby boy. Anyone who wants to see pictures can look at my flickr set. And right now my email priorities are, in order: Family, Business, Friends & Scheduling Stuff and then everything else. So if I'm less responsive than usual, or if you notice my workload at Comic Pants has grown even smaller, now you know why.
It was a bit of a rough week. On Sunday night, I was up way too late (as usual) and after finishing up the 2-disc Kitchen Confidential, I came to bed about 3:00 AM. Just about the time Suzanne's water broke and she realized the "gas pains" she'd been having were in fact labor. We grabbed our stuff, called my parents to come to the house and watch Katy and called the midwife.
At about 5:00, we headed to the birthing center. I could tell that Suzanne was in more pain this time, and that continued throughout. She was still remarkably calm, nothing like the screaming pregnant women you see in TV and movies, but I know her well enough to know that it hurt a lot more this time. Aaron hadn't made it easy on us... there was a miscarriage scare, a week of bedrest brought on by fears he was coming too early and then he waited a couple days to come out, and did so more painfully than asked for.
After he was born, at about 9:00 in the morning (8 lbs. 5 ounces), I noticed that there was a lot of blood. The midwives handed my son to me so they could attend to my wife, and I wasn't panicking, hoping that this was, if not normal, not a big deal. That all changed when one of them called an ambulance and I was told that they couldn't get the placenta out. That's when I went into "scared out of my goddamned mind" mode.
I don't think I fell apart, because I knew I couldn't afford to and Suzanne couldn't afford me too, but man was I panicking inside. We got into an ambulance, rode to St. David's, and left Aaron with the midwives to follow us in the car. I didn't get to ride in the back with Suzanne, I rode up front with the ambulance driver, worrying the whole time that it was taking us too long. Forget about all the movies you see where ambulances are careening down the road at breakneck speeds... when you're in the cab, and you think your wife might be bleeding out in the back, driving into oncoming traffic doesn't seem fast enough. It really did seem like we were doing like 30 mph, even though I know based on how fast we got to the hospital that it wasn't the case.
Same with going into the hospital. There were a couple techs, three nurses and one doctor in the room, but it wasn't the crazy fast-cut movement of ER or even Scrubs. Everybody was doing their job methodically, but at that point, I just didn't see the urgency I wanted. I'm sure it was there, but it all moved really slow for me. Fortunately, the doctor, Dr. Fitzwater, got the placenta out and got Suzanne onto some medications for the pain. She was allergic to some of the anti-biotics, which meant she got some Benadryl to control the reaction, and combined with a dizziness side effect from the pain medication and general loopiness from the loss of blood, I could tell she was kind of out of it. We all kept talking to her, though, and she stayed awake, and after what seemed like an excruciating amount of time, the doctors got her stabilized.
We were in the hospital for a couple of days, but we got to come home fairly quickly, and Suzanne seems to be feeling well and recovering nicely. She's stuck in bed for at least a few days, but she's able to feed Aaron and get him to sleep, and both her parents and my parents have been in to help with Katy. We've also got a great support system in my friends and in the Austinmamas, who have had an outpouring of offerings of support. Kind of funny, when we got home from the hospital, there was a phone message and an email from members of the listgroup, wondering if everything was OK because they hadn't heard from Suzanne in a couple days. My wife is what you call a frequent poster when she's involved with a list. :)
At any rate, it was a scary, awful day, but the end result is a recovering, soon to be fully healthy mom and a healthy, happy (by newborn standards) baby boy. Anyone who wants to see pictures can look at my flickr set. And right now my email priorities are, in order: Family, Business, Friends & Scheduling Stuff and then everything else. So if I'm less responsive than usual, or if you notice my workload at Comic Pants has grown even smaller, now you know why.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 13, 2007
Wow. Huge week. Which is perfect, since the baby will probably come on Wednesday and I won't be there for it. :)
TOP FIVE:
BPRD Garden Of Souls #4 (Easily one of my top five favorite series running)
DMZ #20 (Ditto, especially on this latest arc, which is the best the series has been so far)
Fables Vol 9 Sons Of Empire TP (Some great stuff in this one, including how the Empire would invade Earth)
Nova #3 (I'm really digging this book, although I'm anxious for it to get back to space... but they handle the Civil War/Initiative tie-in very well)
Re-Gifters (First Minx book was a solid favorite, I look forward to reading this one)
THE REST:
Avengers Classic #1 (Art Adams covers, original Dwayne McDuffie story, I'll check it out, even though I have the Avengers CD-ROM and Essential Avengers for the main story)
Aviary (New one-shot from Adhouse, sure to be beautifully designed and interesting)
Black Diamond #1 (Car chase madness from AIT/Planet Lar... their first color ongoing series... those who miss Drive should check this out)
Death Jr Vol 2 TP (More fun adventures with art by Ted Naifeh)
Elephantmen Pilot (I've already got this, I think, but it's really terrific stuff)
Fables #62 (The Flycatcher arc has re-invigorated my interest in the series, and I don't know where it's going, which is nice)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 3 Scary Summer Sc (Terrific art line-up on this one... weird that volume two never came out)
Hack Slash Series #2 (First issue was pretty impressive, with a great new artist)
Hellboy Animated Vol 2 Judgement Bell TP (First volume of this was surprisingly excellent as well)
Hulk Planet Hulk HC (Now that it's all together, I might give it another shot, especially if World War Hulk is enjoyable and doesn't piss me off)
Jack Kirbys Fourth World Omnibus Vol 1 HC (Very tempted by this, but I need to see production values first)
Mystic Arcana Magik (Hoping for good, as I have a fondness for Magik, but I haven't got any sense of Marvel's magic event yet)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 8 (Terrific suspense manga, as always)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game HC (Beautiful art by D'Israeli, interesting post-War of the Worlds sci-fi by Ian Edginton)
Star Wars Legacy #13 (Still only mildly enjoying this, but it's solid and has great art)
Star Wars Rebellion #7 (The delays lost a lot of my interest in this one, but I've liked what I've read)
Stormwatch PHD #8 (Finally caught up on this book... it's OK, not great, but I'll keep reading)
Sub-Mariner #1 (Reviewing this for Comic Pants, so I'll read it, but with low expectations as I'm not a fan of the characters and don't really know the creators)
World War Hulk #1 (Expecting it to piss me off at some point, but right now I'm onboard. Hulk Smash!)
TOP FIVE:
BPRD Garden Of Souls #4 (Easily one of my top five favorite series running)
DMZ #20 (Ditto, especially on this latest arc, which is the best the series has been so far)
Fables Vol 9 Sons Of Empire TP (Some great stuff in this one, including how the Empire would invade Earth)
Nova #3 (I'm really digging this book, although I'm anxious for it to get back to space... but they handle the Civil War/Initiative tie-in very well)
Re-Gifters (First Minx book was a solid favorite, I look forward to reading this one)
THE REST:
Avengers Classic #1 (Art Adams covers, original Dwayne McDuffie story, I'll check it out, even though I have the Avengers CD-ROM and Essential Avengers for the main story)
Aviary (New one-shot from Adhouse, sure to be beautifully designed and interesting)
Black Diamond #1 (Car chase madness from AIT/Planet Lar... their first color ongoing series... those who miss Drive should check this out)
Death Jr Vol 2 TP (More fun adventures with art by Ted Naifeh)
Elephantmen Pilot (I've already got this, I think, but it's really terrific stuff)
Fables #62 (The Flycatcher arc has re-invigorated my interest in the series, and I don't know where it's going, which is nice)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 3 Scary Summer Sc (Terrific art line-up on this one... weird that volume two never came out)
Hack Slash Series #2 (First issue was pretty impressive, with a great new artist)
Hellboy Animated Vol 2 Judgement Bell TP (First volume of this was surprisingly excellent as well)
Hulk Planet Hulk HC (Now that it's all together, I might give it another shot, especially if World War Hulk is enjoyable and doesn't piss me off)
Jack Kirbys Fourth World Omnibus Vol 1 HC (Very tempted by this, but I need to see production values first)
Mystic Arcana Magik (Hoping for good, as I have a fondness for Magik, but I haven't got any sense of Marvel's magic event yet)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 8 (Terrific suspense manga, as always)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game HC (Beautiful art by D'Israeli, interesting post-War of the Worlds sci-fi by Ian Edginton)
Star Wars Legacy #13 (Still only mildly enjoying this, but it's solid and has great art)
Star Wars Rebellion #7 (The delays lost a lot of my interest in this one, but I've liked what I've read)
Stormwatch PHD #8 (Finally caught up on this book... it's OK, not great, but I'll keep reading)
Sub-Mariner #1 (Reviewing this for Comic Pants, so I'll read it, but with low expectations as I'm not a fan of the characters and don't really know the creators)
World War Hulk #1 (Expecting it to piss me off at some point, but right now I'm onboard. Hulk Smash!)
Pandora Internet Radio
My buddy Dave showed me this new site, which is just too cool for words. Basically, it's Internet radio, but you program it by putting in songs and/or artists you like and it plays songs from them as well as songs similar to those, and you can thumbs up/thumbs down to help it narrow things down.
Very, very cool and totally addictive. My station is HERE, although it's very much a work in progress.
Very, very cool and totally addictive. My station is HERE, although it's very much a work in progress.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Blog Template Update for May
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
Given how much I hate much of Marvel's best sellers, I'm continuously shocked by how much of them I read. Six books this month (counting Criminal, which is just barely Marvel), and three of them are even in post-Initiative continuity. DC doesn't fare so well, post-52... none of their books even made it close, and the one book I am reading, The Spirit, isn't in continuity. Of course, there were four Vertigo books in there, just as many as I have Dark Horse and one less than I have of Image. Two indys, one from Archaia and one from Oni.
Graphic novels I read this month but didn't hit my Top 10 include a slew of discounted Marvel hardcovers (Westerns, Horror, Supreme Power 1-2, Best of Wolverine), Transformers: Infiltration and Transformers: Escalation, the latest Walking Dead HC, the Oni story of the first monkey in space, First in Space and Plain Janes, the launch of DC's Minx line. Those last two would easily have made a top 10 in a weaker month, but there were just so many good trades released in May. And that's not even counting the good ones that I haven't read yet, like Mouse Guard or Fell. Single issues that almost made the list included Hack Slash Series #1, GI Joe Storm Shadow #1, Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1, World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker, Marvel Zombies Dead Days, the third issues of Buffy, Star Wars Dark Times and Marvel Zombies Army of Darkness and Captain America #26. So it was a pretty good month for comic books. There wasn't a lot new, but what was new was pretty good, an X-Men First Class Special with great artwork and the hilariously sick and wrong Goon: Satan's Sodomy Baby.
May was a really good month for TV. Sopranos and Veronica Mars both drew to a close, the latter in a decent manner after a disappointing season and a disappointing near-pickup, the former in fine style, although as I write this there's still one more episode to go. A lot of TV ended in May, which means my June line-up is probably going to look pretty different. Most of what was great (The Office, 30 Rock, The Shield) stayed great, and Lost took a huge upturn and ended on a great episode, while Heroes ended a great set of episodes with a really disappointing finale. The upfronts for next season look pretty fucking abysmal in terms of new shows, so this might have been the best season of TV for a while.
Tons of new feeds this month. I added Tom Brevoort's Marvel Blog: Blah Blah Blah to follow the entertaining Editorial Simulation, finally added The Savage Critics to my feed, found Melanie McFarland, Seattle's TV Gal off a link from Alan Sepinwall and added Rolling Stone's Photo, DVD, Music and Movie feeds. I also added a couple new writer feeds from Andy Diggle and Heroes producer Greg Beeman, found artist blogs for several favorites like Frazer Irving, Kyle Baker and Sean Phillips and added three new webcomics: Alien Loves Predator, Smuggling Spirits and Wondermark. Then there were two new local feeds for Austinite Rob Osborne and the Alamo Drafthouse.
Given how much I hate much of Marvel's best sellers, I'm continuously shocked by how much of them I read. Six books this month (counting Criminal, which is just barely Marvel), and three of them are even in post-Initiative continuity. DC doesn't fare so well, post-52... none of their books even made it close, and the one book I am reading, The Spirit, isn't in continuity. Of course, there were four Vertigo books in there, just as many as I have Dark Horse and one less than I have of Image. Two indys, one from Archaia and one from Oni.
Graphic novels I read this month but didn't hit my Top 10 include a slew of discounted Marvel hardcovers (Westerns, Horror, Supreme Power 1-2, Best of Wolverine), Transformers: Infiltration and Transformers: Escalation, the latest Walking Dead HC, the Oni story of the first monkey in space, First in Space and Plain Janes, the launch of DC's Minx line. Those last two would easily have made a top 10 in a weaker month, but there were just so many good trades released in May. And that's not even counting the good ones that I haven't read yet, like Mouse Guard or Fell. Single issues that almost made the list included Hack Slash Series #1, GI Joe Storm Shadow #1, Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1, World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker, Marvel Zombies Dead Days, the third issues of Buffy, Star Wars Dark Times and Marvel Zombies Army of Darkness and Captain America #26. So it was a pretty good month for comic books. There wasn't a lot new, but what was new was pretty good, an X-Men First Class Special with great artwork and the hilariously sick and wrong Goon: Satan's Sodomy Baby.
May was a really good month for TV. Sopranos and Veronica Mars both drew to a close, the latter in a decent manner after a disappointing season and a disappointing near-pickup, the former in fine style, although as I write this there's still one more episode to go. A lot of TV ended in May, which means my June line-up is probably going to look pretty different. Most of what was great (The Office, 30 Rock, The Shield) stayed great, and Lost took a huge upturn and ended on a great episode, while Heroes ended a great set of episodes with a really disappointing finale. The upfronts for next season look pretty fucking abysmal in terms of new shows, so this might have been the best season of TV for a while.
Tons of new feeds this month. I added Tom Brevoort's Marvel Blog: Blah Blah Blah to follow the entertaining Editorial Simulation, finally added The Savage Critics to my feed, found Melanie McFarland, Seattle's TV Gal off a link from Alan Sepinwall and added Rolling Stone's Photo, DVD, Music and Movie feeds. I also added a couple new writer feeds from Andy Diggle and Heroes producer Greg Beeman, found artist blogs for several favorites like Frazer Irving, Kyle Baker and Sean Phillips and added three new webcomics: Alien Loves Predator, Smuggling Spirits and Wondermark. Then there were two new local feeds for Austinite Rob Osborne and the Alamo Drafthouse.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - June 6, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #4 (The conclusion of Whedon's first arc)
Dynamo 5 #4 (One of my favorite new series on a biweekly release schedule... doesn't get much better than that)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #1 (The origins of Heath Huston, Texan alien exterminator, picks up at Dark Horse)
Jack Of Fables #11 (At last, the conclusion of the "Jack Frost" story)
Superior Showcase #2 (Indy style superheroes! The first issue was great)
THE REST:
Avengers Initiative #3 (Weaker with every issue. Some good moments, but I can't believe this is the same writer who kicked ass on early days of She-Hulk and on The Thing)
Fantastic Four Inhumans TP (Beautiful Ladronn art on part of this, beautiful Pacheco art on the rest... stories so-so on both)
Invincible #42 (Jumping-on priced at $1.99, and I've been enjoying this book a lot lately)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #4 (In a way, more fun than the original Marvel Zombies, since it includes so many C-listers)
New Warriors #1 (Solid first issue with beautiful art by Paco Medina)
Spider-Man Family #3 (Includes stories by Paul Tobin and Fred Van Lente)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #19 (One more issue of McKeever to go)
Strange Embrace #1 (Loved this in black and white GN form, looking forward to seeing the new color version too)
Uncanny X-Men #487 (Interesting opening to the new arc, but I miss Billy Tan's art and I'm still pissed about Corsair... and Banshee, for that matter)
Ward O/t State #2 (Good first issue, weird but engrossing concept)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #4 (The conclusion of Whedon's first arc)
Dynamo 5 #4 (One of my favorite new series on a biweekly release schedule... doesn't get much better than that)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #1 (The origins of Heath Huston, Texan alien exterminator, picks up at Dark Horse)
Jack Of Fables #11 (At last, the conclusion of the "Jack Frost" story)
Superior Showcase #2 (Indy style superheroes! The first issue was great)
THE REST:
Avengers Initiative #3 (Weaker with every issue. Some good moments, but I can't believe this is the same writer who kicked ass on early days of She-Hulk and on The Thing)
Fantastic Four Inhumans TP (Beautiful Ladronn art on part of this, beautiful Pacheco art on the rest... stories so-so on both)
Invincible #42 (Jumping-on priced at $1.99, and I've been enjoying this book a lot lately)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #4 (In a way, more fun than the original Marvel Zombies, since it includes so many C-listers)
New Warriors #1 (Solid first issue with beautiful art by Paco Medina)
Spider-Man Family #3 (Includes stories by Paul Tobin and Fred Van Lente)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #19 (One more issue of McKeever to go)
Strange Embrace #1 (Loved this in black and white GN form, looking forward to seeing the new color version too)
Uncanny X-Men #487 (Interesting opening to the new arc, but I miss Billy Tan's art and I'm still pissed about Corsair... and Banshee, for that matter)
Ward O/t State #2 (Good first issue, weird but engrossing concept)
Monday, May 28, 2007
Threadless Summer Sale!
Threadless, the place where I buy almost all my T-Shirts (excepting stuff I buy at Comic-con and small press shows), is having one of their regular $10 sales. Most of their shirts (which are voted on by the membership and designed by people all over the country) are really cool, and I already have at least a half-dozen. After this sale, I'll have about ten more.
You can check them out HERE.
You can check them out HERE.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 31, 2007
TOP FIVE
Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1 (First series didn't end great, but was otherwise very enjoyable... looking forward to picking up the cliffhanger)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #2 (First issue was solid, with beautiful art... but I think I'd like Hellboy to go back to the BPRD now)
Punisher Max Vol 3 HC (Waiting for hardcovers pays off, as I've got some new Punisher stories to read in the format I prefer)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #17 (I've been digging this adventurous, light-hearted take on early Star Wars, and have gone from reading trades to reading issues)
Usagi Yojimbo #103 (Continues to be a great read every time)
THE REST
Daredevil #97 (I like this book, but I do think Brubaker's noir sensibilities are a little off-kilter with the take on the superhero genre I prefer)
Drawing From Life #1 (Jim Valentino returns to auto-bio)
Fallen Angel #16 (Love Kristian's guest art, but I don't even know where the story is at this point)
Fear Agent Vol 2 My War TP (Good solid action-heavy sci-fi with great art)
Previews Vol XVII #6 (Down the Line already in the works)
Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1 (Could be kind of fun, almost certainly will have nice art)
White Picket Fences #1 ('50s period piece with weird science/alien elements, sounds like fun)
Black Coat Or Give Me Death #1 (First series didn't end great, but was otherwise very enjoyable... looking forward to picking up the cliffhanger)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #2 (First issue was solid, with beautiful art... but I think I'd like Hellboy to go back to the BPRD now)
Punisher Max Vol 3 HC (Waiting for hardcovers pays off, as I've got some new Punisher stories to read in the format I prefer)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #17 (I've been digging this adventurous, light-hearted take on early Star Wars, and have gone from reading trades to reading issues)
Usagi Yojimbo #103 (Continues to be a great read every time)
THE REST
Daredevil #97 (I like this book, but I do think Brubaker's noir sensibilities are a little off-kilter with the take on the superhero genre I prefer)
Drawing From Life #1 (Jim Valentino returns to auto-bio)
Fallen Angel #16 (Love Kristian's guest art, but I don't even know where the story is at this point)
Fear Agent Vol 2 My War TP (Good solid action-heavy sci-fi with great art)
Previews Vol XVII #6 (Down the Line already in the works)
Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1 (Could be kind of fun, almost certainly will have nice art)
White Picket Fences #1 ('50s period piece with weird science/alien elements, sounds like fun)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
TV Thoughts - Summer Finales & Fall Preview
I watch a fair amount of TV, it's probably my favorite medium aside from comics. And though there's a lot of it that's trash (say 99.99% of reality television, for example, if the 0.01% is Celebrity Poker Showdown and Dinner for Five), there's also a lot of good stuff. I always enjoy the Network upfronts at the beginning of summer, because there's always so much promise in what's going to come next. I know in my heart that, as per usual, most of the shows I like will struggle for an audience and die, leaving me frustrated with their sudden departures, but there's usually a flood of promising new series. Last season was especially promising. This season? Not so much.
But before I talk about what's coming up, a few words on what's going on. As I write this, I'm just about to sit down and watch the Lost season finale on Tivo. With the exception of the Hurley-VW bus episode, I've been really crazy about this season of Lost. I know many folks felt it jumped the Ezra James Sharkington this season, but I couldn't disagree more. Especially in the last half-dozen episodes or so, the show has started giving fascinating answers, raising even more fascinating tension and presenting the same elevated level of writing and acting that you just plain can't on a genre show, most of the time.
I hope it's good, because so far, my season enders have been downers. I was hugely disappointed in the lackluster Heroes finale, which spent a lot of time on weepy build-up that duplicated all the effort made in the previous excellent four or five episodes, and left too little time for a lackluster and illogical final fight with Sylar. Lots of build-up, disappointing payoff, and too many questions stopped me from enjoying it. Like why does D.L. go from mortally wounded to okay enough to lay around for a few hours before surviving, with no apparent medical attention? Why didn't Sylar use some abilities besides telekinesis when battling the assembled heroes? Why didn't Peter pull out some impressive abilities in that fight? Why couldn't Peter fly on his own, and if it's because he only uses one power at once, why was that never, ever mentioned, not even once, during the show? Kind of a crucial thing to leave out, if your big season finale cliffhanger is going to rely on it. I didn't hate the finale... it was solid enough that I still plan to pick up the DVDs. But after the notable jump in quality the show took in the last half of the season, it was disappointing to see it plummet down to the "merely OK" quality level that it begun the season at.
Veronica Mars? I'm disappointed that it's gone, but also disappointed by the ending. They were good shows, but the last episode seemed like the kind of thing that could have been an entire season arc, or at least one of their mini-arcs, and the payoffs would have been great with that much more build-up. I'm glad that Logan and Veronica didn't wind up together (I hated that relationship as a long-term thing, and much as I found Piz boring, I preferred him to gripy, bitter Logan. Nobody ever really seemed to match wits properly with Veronica in terms of her boyfriends, which is a shame) and the downer ending, while sad, did fit the general vibe of the show. It was also great to see Mac and Wallace return from invisibility to regain the roles they should have had for the last season and a half of the show. Season three was pretty weak, and I doubt very much I'll be picking up the DVDs. Again, not an awful finale, but a disappointing one.
All the sitcoms ended well, though. 30 Rock was brilliant and funny, The Office funny and kind of sweet with its turns in the Pam-Jim relationship, My Name is Earl kind of surprising in a "huh, where do they go from here?" way and How I Met Your Mother a cute, relatively fresh take on "the big wedding" episode that also features some notable turns in the Robin-Ted relationship and, as always, show-stopping moments from Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. OK, now that I think about it, not all of the sitcoms ended well. Seeing the J.D.-Eliot story rear its ugly head again in Scrubs put me on the edge of "What the hell are you doing?" rage. We've been there before, gotten all the mileage there is out of it, I'd rather see J.D. and Eliot in the just-friends relationship, the way they work best. Scrubs was a weaker season, and I'm torn... on one hand, I'm glad they get another season to try and do the final season right, on the other I'm wondering if it's going to get weaker still and go out on a weaker note.
Midseason and summer looks pretty great to me as well. Sopranos is doing that slow-burn thing really well, Entourage is fun again (although it still hasn't hit the addictive level for me it did during season two) and The Shield is amazing. The most consistently excellent show on television. And the teaser for Glenn Close's new show, a lawyer show that seems to be much more a gritty crime drama than another Shark or Law & Order, looks very promising. Midseason also brings the return of several shows that I like but don't love, like The 4400, Rescue Me and Big Love. Combine with several new shows launching from HBO (none of which look great, but I can never judge HBO on their teasers, which are inevitably weaker than their shows) and this looks like a good summer for TV.
Good thing, because the Fall season looks like it's gonna suuuuuuuck. I mean, there are returning favorites, like Lost, Heroes, the NBC Thursday comedy block (it's Must-See again) and How I Met Your Mother, but the crop of new shows is disappointing. And the shows I really liked this season, like Smith and Kidnapped, got killed early and thus, no season two. Even flawed shows that could have gotten better, like Studio 60, are gone, gone, gone. So it was up to the networks to come up with some fresh new shows to catch my eye again. And they failed miserably. Here's what I'm looking at for next season:
MONDAY
8:00 p.m. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Now that I've discovered this show, I can't get enough of it. It's not Arrested Development or even 30 Rock or The Office, but it's a good, solid, occasionally off-beat comedy with a great cast.
9:00 p.m. K-Ville (FOX) - This is a cop drama (strike one), but it's set in post-Katrina New Orleans (I have a fondness for the city going back to before Katrina, so I like the setting) and stars Anthony Anderson (who rocked the house in The Shield). Too bad it's opposite Heroes, meaning that I won't be watching it. In fact, given that this is the only series FOX has that holds any interest for me, it looks like I'm down from one or two FOX shows to none. Come January, they're promising a revitalized 24 (they've won me back once, with season four and five, but I'm not sure I'm up for another go-round after the crap they served up this season... if the show isn't centered on CTU and Los Angeles, I might be interested... if it is, I'm gone) and, more importantly, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There's plenty of life in the Terminator franchise, and this could be really good. Of course, it's Fox and it's sci-fi, so it's probably doomed anyway.
9:00 p.m.: Heroes (NBC) - The finale may have been a bit of a letdown, but the teaser for season two was fun. Looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
10:00 p.m.: Journeyman (NBC) - A drama starring Kevin McKidd (whoever the hell that is) as a man who travels back in time to help people in trouble. The vibe I'm getting, for whatever reason, is that this is gonna be lame. I may or may not watch, depending on the advance word.
TUESDAY
9:00 p.m.: Chuck (NBC) - The teaser for this one on the NBC website is kind of funny, with just a touch of Judd Apatow flavor (even though he has nothing to do with it, the show is in fact by The O.C.'s creator). It's a spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi as a regular guy who stumbles upon a second career as a government agent. Has potential, and Adam Baldwin as a supporting player, which is a plus.
9:00 p.m.: Reaper (CW) - And over on The CW, at the same time, is a show with a similar premise, except that the everyman stumbles onto a second career as a bounty hunter for the Devil, because his parents sold his soul when he was born. Neat enough premise, but it conflict with Chuck, which I'm more interested in, and which has the additional benefit of not being on the network that cancelled Veronica Mars.
10:00 Cane (CBS) - An ensemble business about a Florida rum family, with a good cast. Again, though, I just don't care much about the premise. If it's more crime drama than family drama, I might be onboard. But I doubt it.
Meanwhile, ABC offers up a show about the Geico cavemen. Somebody in programming must have lost a bet.
WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m.: Pushing Daisies (ABC) - Another weird premise, this one about a guy whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then he can't touch them ever again without undoing the gift. Too bad one of the first people he brings back is his girlfriend. Weird, intriguing premise, pushed over the top because the guy behind it is Bryan Fuller, of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.
9:00 p.m.: Bionic Woman (NBC) - I don't particularly care about a remake of the 1970s TV series, except that the teaser from NBC looks solid enough, and more importantly, one of the guys behind it is David Eick, who helped make another revamp of another '70s TV sci-fi series (Galactica) I didn't care about into one of my favorite shows. Not particularly looking forward to it or anything, but I'll give it a couple episodes to hook me.
10:00 p.m.: Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) - Got a mild interest in this one because of the cast, but I generally don't have much interest in the "rich people are such bastards" genre. If it's more Arrested Development than Dallas, that'll be one thing, but I don't think that's the vibe I'm getting.
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m.: My Name Is Earl (NBC)
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock (NBC)
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office (NBC)
9:30-10 p.m.: Scrubs (NBC)
10 p.m.: Big Shots (ABC) - I like this cast, which features Christopher Titus, Michael Vartan, Josh Malina, but it's another "how rich and powerful people live" show and quite frankly, I don't much care.
FRIDAY
9:00 Moonlight (CBS) - A vampire P.I. - Hmm, where have I seen that before? I have serious doubts that this is going to live up to the moody, noir and yet fun vibe that Angel achieved, and I'm more expecting another half-hearted, quickly cancelled attempt at genre from the networks, who (with rare exceptions) don't seem able to pull them off. Especially bummed because this got picked up instead of the zombie show Babylon Fields... we haven't had a lot of zombie TV, as compared to the numerous vampire shows.
But before I talk about what's coming up, a few words on what's going on. As I write this, I'm just about to sit down and watch the Lost season finale on Tivo. With the exception of the Hurley-VW bus episode, I've been really crazy about this season of Lost. I know many folks felt it jumped the Ezra James Sharkington this season, but I couldn't disagree more. Especially in the last half-dozen episodes or so, the show has started giving fascinating answers, raising even more fascinating tension and presenting the same elevated level of writing and acting that you just plain can't on a genre show, most of the time.
I hope it's good, because so far, my season enders have been downers. I was hugely disappointed in the lackluster Heroes finale, which spent a lot of time on weepy build-up that duplicated all the effort made in the previous excellent four or five episodes, and left too little time for a lackluster and illogical final fight with Sylar. Lots of build-up, disappointing payoff, and too many questions stopped me from enjoying it. Like why does D.L. go from mortally wounded to okay enough to lay around for a few hours before surviving, with no apparent medical attention? Why didn't Sylar use some abilities besides telekinesis when battling the assembled heroes? Why didn't Peter pull out some impressive abilities in that fight? Why couldn't Peter fly on his own, and if it's because he only uses one power at once, why was that never, ever mentioned, not even once, during the show? Kind of a crucial thing to leave out, if your big season finale cliffhanger is going to rely on it. I didn't hate the finale... it was solid enough that I still plan to pick up the DVDs. But after the notable jump in quality the show took in the last half of the season, it was disappointing to see it plummet down to the "merely OK" quality level that it begun the season at.
Veronica Mars? I'm disappointed that it's gone, but also disappointed by the ending. They were good shows, but the last episode seemed like the kind of thing that could have been an entire season arc, or at least one of their mini-arcs, and the payoffs would have been great with that much more build-up. I'm glad that Logan and Veronica didn't wind up together (I hated that relationship as a long-term thing, and much as I found Piz boring, I preferred him to gripy, bitter Logan. Nobody ever really seemed to match wits properly with Veronica in terms of her boyfriends, which is a shame) and the downer ending, while sad, did fit the general vibe of the show. It was also great to see Mac and Wallace return from invisibility to regain the roles they should have had for the last season and a half of the show. Season three was pretty weak, and I doubt very much I'll be picking up the DVDs. Again, not an awful finale, but a disappointing one.
All the sitcoms ended well, though. 30 Rock was brilliant and funny, The Office funny and kind of sweet with its turns in the Pam-Jim relationship, My Name is Earl kind of surprising in a "huh, where do they go from here?" way and How I Met Your Mother a cute, relatively fresh take on "the big wedding" episode that also features some notable turns in the Robin-Ted relationship and, as always, show-stopping moments from Neil Patrick Harris' Barney. OK, now that I think about it, not all of the sitcoms ended well. Seeing the J.D.-Eliot story rear its ugly head again in Scrubs put me on the edge of "What the hell are you doing?" rage. We've been there before, gotten all the mileage there is out of it, I'd rather see J.D. and Eliot in the just-friends relationship, the way they work best. Scrubs was a weaker season, and I'm torn... on one hand, I'm glad they get another season to try and do the final season right, on the other I'm wondering if it's going to get weaker still and go out on a weaker note.
Midseason and summer looks pretty great to me as well. Sopranos is doing that slow-burn thing really well, Entourage is fun again (although it still hasn't hit the addictive level for me it did during season two) and The Shield is amazing. The most consistently excellent show on television. And the teaser for Glenn Close's new show, a lawyer show that seems to be much more a gritty crime drama than another Shark or Law & Order, looks very promising. Midseason also brings the return of several shows that I like but don't love, like The 4400, Rescue Me and Big Love. Combine with several new shows launching from HBO (none of which look great, but I can never judge HBO on their teasers, which are inevitably weaker than their shows) and this looks like a good summer for TV.
Good thing, because the Fall season looks like it's gonna suuuuuuuck. I mean, there are returning favorites, like Lost, Heroes, the NBC Thursday comedy block (it's Must-See again) and How I Met Your Mother, but the crop of new shows is disappointing. And the shows I really liked this season, like Smith and Kidnapped, got killed early and thus, no season two. Even flawed shows that could have gotten better, like Studio 60, are gone, gone, gone. So it was up to the networks to come up with some fresh new shows to catch my eye again. And they failed miserably. Here's what I'm looking at for next season:
MONDAY
8:00 p.m. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Now that I've discovered this show, I can't get enough of it. It's not Arrested Development or even 30 Rock or The Office, but it's a good, solid, occasionally off-beat comedy with a great cast.
9:00 p.m. K-Ville (FOX) - This is a cop drama (strike one), but it's set in post-Katrina New Orleans (I have a fondness for the city going back to before Katrina, so I like the setting) and stars Anthony Anderson (who rocked the house in The Shield). Too bad it's opposite Heroes, meaning that I won't be watching it. In fact, given that this is the only series FOX has that holds any interest for me, it looks like I'm down from one or two FOX shows to none. Come January, they're promising a revitalized 24 (they've won me back once, with season four and five, but I'm not sure I'm up for another go-round after the crap they served up this season... if the show isn't centered on CTU and Los Angeles, I might be interested... if it is, I'm gone) and, more importantly, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There's plenty of life in the Terminator franchise, and this could be really good. Of course, it's Fox and it's sci-fi, so it's probably doomed anyway.
9:00 p.m.: Heroes (NBC) - The finale may have been a bit of a letdown, but the teaser for season two was fun. Looking forward to seeing where they go from here.
10:00 p.m.: Journeyman (NBC) - A drama starring Kevin McKidd (whoever the hell that is) as a man who travels back in time to help people in trouble. The vibe I'm getting, for whatever reason, is that this is gonna be lame. I may or may not watch, depending on the advance word.
TUESDAY
9:00 p.m.: Chuck (NBC) - The teaser for this one on the NBC website is kind of funny, with just a touch of Judd Apatow flavor (even though he has nothing to do with it, the show is in fact by The O.C.'s creator). It's a spy dramedy starring Zachary Levi as a regular guy who stumbles upon a second career as a government agent. Has potential, and Adam Baldwin as a supporting player, which is a plus.
9:00 p.m.: Reaper (CW) - And over on The CW, at the same time, is a show with a similar premise, except that the everyman stumbles onto a second career as a bounty hunter for the Devil, because his parents sold his soul when he was born. Neat enough premise, but it conflict with Chuck, which I'm more interested in, and which has the additional benefit of not being on the network that cancelled Veronica Mars.
10:00 Cane (CBS) - An ensemble business about a Florida rum family, with a good cast. Again, though, I just don't care much about the premise. If it's more crime drama than family drama, I might be onboard. But I doubt it.
Meanwhile, ABC offers up a show about the Geico cavemen. Somebody in programming must have lost a bet.
WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m.: Pushing Daisies (ABC) - Another weird premise, this one about a guy whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then he can't touch them ever again without undoing the gift. Too bad one of the first people he brings back is his girlfriend. Weird, intriguing premise, pushed over the top because the guy behind it is Bryan Fuller, of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls.
9:00 p.m.: Bionic Woman (NBC) - I don't particularly care about a remake of the 1970s TV series, except that the teaser from NBC looks solid enough, and more importantly, one of the guys behind it is David Eick, who helped make another revamp of another '70s TV sci-fi series (Galactica) I didn't care about into one of my favorite shows. Not particularly looking forward to it or anything, but I'll give it a couple episodes to hook me.
10:00 p.m.: Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) - Got a mild interest in this one because of the cast, but I generally don't have much interest in the "rich people are such bastards" genre. If it's more Arrested Development than Dallas, that'll be one thing, but I don't think that's the vibe I'm getting.
THURSDAY
8-8:30 p.m.: My Name Is Earl (NBC)
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock (NBC)
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office (NBC)
9:30-10 p.m.: Scrubs (NBC)
10 p.m.: Big Shots (ABC) - I like this cast, which features Christopher Titus, Michael Vartan, Josh Malina, but it's another "how rich and powerful people live" show and quite frankly, I don't much care.
FRIDAY
9:00 Moonlight (CBS) - A vampire P.I. - Hmm, where have I seen that before? I have serious doubts that this is going to live up to the moody, noir and yet fun vibe that Angel achieved, and I'm more expecting another half-hearted, quickly cancelled attempt at genre from the networks, who (with rare exceptions) don't seem able to pull them off. Especially bummed because this got picked up instead of the zombie show Babylon Fields... we haven't had a lot of zombie TV, as compared to the numerous vampire shows.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 23, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Criminal #6 (The new story arc begins!)
Dynamo 5 #3 (Really digging this new superhero team book by Jay Faerber and Mahmud Asrar... Invincible fans especially should give this a look)
Fantastic Four #546 (Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier are kicking much ass on this book)
Spirit #6 (Darwyn Cooke is a genius, and his take on The Spirit is genius as well)
Fell Vol 1 Feral City TP (Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith doing weird police procedural... fun stuff)
THE REST:
Captain America #26 (Not quite sure I'm up for a couple years of a Captain America book without Captain America, but it's solidly written and drawn)
Gutsville #1 (Bizarre concept, nice art by Frazer Irving, I'm looking forward to this)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 (I think I missed last issue... I'll see when I try and read this one, I guess)
Left On Mission #2 ('70s style spy novel in comic book form)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 7 TP (Yay, more Grimjack reprints!)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1 (All-ages Iron Man who isn't a government stooge/total dick)
Psycomm Vol 2 (Tony Salvaggio's futuristic media criticism/psychic warfare book gets a second volume)
Star Wars Legacy #12 (Started reading this again after picking up the trade... too many factions, but solid writing and gorgeous art)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 3 My Secret Life Digest (More Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane always welcome as well)
Transformers Escalation TP (Movie trailer and interested friends have me in Transformers mode, time to give this a read)
Criminal #6 (The new story arc begins!)
Dynamo 5 #3 (Really digging this new superhero team book by Jay Faerber and Mahmud Asrar... Invincible fans especially should give this a look)
Fantastic Four #546 (Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier are kicking much ass on this book)
Spirit #6 (Darwyn Cooke is a genius, and his take on The Spirit is genius as well)
Fell Vol 1 Feral City TP (Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith doing weird police procedural... fun stuff)
THE REST:
Captain America #26 (Not quite sure I'm up for a couple years of a Captain America book without Captain America, but it's solidly written and drawn)
Gutsville #1 (Bizarre concept, nice art by Frazer Irving, I'm looking forward to this)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 (I think I missed last issue... I'll see when I try and read this one, I guess)
Left On Mission #2 ('70s style spy novel in comic book form)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 7 TP (Yay, more Grimjack reprints!)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1 (All-ages Iron Man who isn't a government stooge/total dick)
Psycomm Vol 2 (Tony Salvaggio's futuristic media criticism/psychic warfare book gets a second volume)
Star Wars Legacy #12 (Started reading this again after picking up the trade... too many factions, but solid writing and gorgeous art)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 3 My Secret Life Digest (More Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane always welcome as well)
Transformers Escalation TP (Movie trailer and interested friends have me in Transformers mode, time to give this a read)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 16, 2007
TOP FIVE
BPRD Garden Of Souls #3 (Every issue of this series is gold)
Left on Mission #1 (Very good new spy series from Boom!)
Local #9 (A new issue of Local is always welcome)
Mouse Guard Vol 1 Fall 1152 HC (Looking forward to seeing this great series in a beautiful hardcover)
Plain Janes (The launch of DC's Minx line, art by Jim Rugg of Street Angel)
THE REST
Adventures In Oz HC (I bought the trade, but the hardcover is sooo cool... very tempting)
Death Jr. II #3 (Late enough that I've forgotten what's going on, but the good news is it means the trade is imminent)
Ex Machina #28 (Been really digging this one lately)
Fables #61 (The second part of the Frog Prince story, which has rekindled my interest in the book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #1 (Larry Hama does ninja shit... OK, I'll check that out)
The Goon: Satans ##### Baby (Offensively funny, or just offensive? Or just funny? Worth looking to find out)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #13 (Jeff Parker rocks, and I love that someone is writing the Avengers I want to read)
Runaways Vol 3 HC (The Vaughan/Alphona Runaways is all collected in hardcover. Nice.)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Vol 2 TP (First volume was great, action-packed Star Wars stuff)
Uncanny X-Men #486 (The finale of the Brubaker/Tan space X-Men saga)
Wasteland #9 (Hyped for this book again after reading the trade and re-connecting with the story and characters)
X-Men First Class Special (Decided to wait on the trade to read the series, but I'll definitely check out this special in the meantime)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #3 (Every issue of this series is gold)
Left on Mission #1 (Very good new spy series from Boom!)
Local #9 (A new issue of Local is always welcome)
Mouse Guard Vol 1 Fall 1152 HC (Looking forward to seeing this great series in a beautiful hardcover)
Plain Janes (The launch of DC's Minx line, art by Jim Rugg of Street Angel)
THE REST
Adventures In Oz HC (I bought the trade, but the hardcover is sooo cool... very tempting)
Death Jr. II #3 (Late enough that I've forgotten what's going on, but the good news is it means the trade is imminent)
Ex Machina #28 (Been really digging this one lately)
Fables #61 (The second part of the Frog Prince story, which has rekindled my interest in the book)
GI Joe Storm Shadow #1 (Larry Hama does ninja shit... OK, I'll check that out)
The Goon: Satans ##### Baby (Offensively funny, or just offensive? Or just funny? Worth looking to find out)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #13 (Jeff Parker rocks, and I love that someone is writing the Avengers I want to read)
Runaways Vol 3 HC (The Vaughan/Alphona Runaways is all collected in hardcover. Nice.)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Vol 2 TP (First volume was great, action-packed Star Wars stuff)
Uncanny X-Men #486 (The finale of the Brubaker/Tan space X-Men saga)
Wasteland #9 (Hyped for this book again after reading the trade and re-connecting with the story and characters)
X-Men First Class Special (Decided to wait on the trade to read the series, but I'll definitely check out this special in the meantime)
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Con Planning
So I'm definitely going to San Diego this year. Flight booked, hotel room arranged, registration in. Done.
But after looking at the guest list and seeing some of what's going to be offered there (like Vasilis Lolos' new mini-comic), I'm dying to get to MOCCA at the end of June. Just one small hitch... MOCCA doesn't really have any info on hotels, etc.
So... anybody out there have advice on where to stay in New York that's convenient to MOCCA and relatively cheap? I'm not a newbie to the subway in New York, I rode it for about six months and I actually find it a pretty convenient way to travel, so it doesn't have to be too close... just close enough so that I won't be on the subway for an hour each way or something crazy like that.
Shot in the dark, really, and I don't know that anybody reading this blog will be able to give any advice, but I figure it's worth a shot.
But after looking at the guest list and seeing some of what's going to be offered there (like Vasilis Lolos' new mini-comic), I'm dying to get to MOCCA at the end of June. Just one small hitch... MOCCA doesn't really have any info on hotels, etc.
So... anybody out there have advice on where to stay in New York that's convenient to MOCCA and relatively cheap? I'm not a newbie to the subway in New York, I rode it for about six months and I actually find it a pretty convenient way to travel, so it doesn't have to be too close... just close enough so that I won't be on the subway for an hour each way or something crazy like that.
Shot in the dark, really, and I don't know that anybody reading this blog will be able to give any advice, but I figure it's worth a shot.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: Free Comic Book Day 2007
Wow, was that a long (but rewarding) week.
This was my fifth Free Comic Book Day. I've worked every one since the beginning (aside from 2006, when I had a family reunion to attend instead) and they're always a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's even moreso (on both fronts) when you're the store owner.
We had a great Free Comic Book Day. We ordered just enough, for the most part. We even have a few Spider-Man, Bongo and Justice League left over for next year. My fears of running out of the Umbrella Academy sampler or Spider-Man didn't come true. My only regret is that we didn't order more Astounding Wolf-Man, as we ran out of that about mid-day, and I would have liked to have had it into the night. But in general, everybody got the comics they wanted. We started off giving out three to a person, but in the early afternoon moved to five per person, and by the end of the night it was "one of each of what's left" which equated to somewhere between 6-10 per person, depending on how close it was to the end of the night.
From noon until about 3:30, we had comic book creators in the store signing and sketching. Paul Benjamin was clearly in his element, working the crowd, cracking jokes and signing plenty of autographs. We sold quite a few copies of his Pantheon High manga from Tokyopop, and he signed a whole bunch of his copies of Marvel Adventures Two in One Free Comic Book Day offering. Scott Kolins sold several gorgeous prints of pin-ups and covers he had done, as well as doing many a sketch and signing copies of Omega Flight and other works. Billy Tan had two lithographs (one of Hepzibah, one of the X-Men, I bought both for the store) and two sketchbooks (one guys, one girls, I bought both of those as well) and some gorgeous character illustration pieces, and we sold a few of his Uncanny X-Men issues to sign as well. Billy did quite a few sketches as well (including a Corsair for me and a beautiful inked Batman for a customer). Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we were packed to the gills while the creators were there.
Next year, I definitely want to figure out how to get more press coverage. I sent out a press blurb to a ton of folks, including local TV, radio and news and all the comics news sites, and literally nobody picked it up. Many ran press releases for the big Zeus event CAPE (and that's a great event, if I wasn't running my own FCBD I'd be there every year) and a few also ran press for the last-minute mini small press Con being done by Austin Books (again, great store and a good idea for an event.) I was a little frustrated to be ignored when I thought we had a pretty good event put together and I had taken the time to send out press info in advance, but that's the way it goes. Next time, a full fledged press release, even earlier, and more follow-up. Certainly the lack of coverage didn't cost us anything in terms of attendance.
I worked about 14 hours that day, and well over 40 this week getting ready, but it definitely paid off. Tons of kids and adults came in and got free comics. Everybody seemed to have a good time. And I'd do Free Comic Book Day even if it cost us more money, but instead it was our biggest day for the store yet, even counting our five year history. We did about three to four times our usual Saturday business, and even with the expense of free comics, advertising and related costs, it was a very successful day for us.
Already looking forward to next year, and to figuring out what cool event we can run at the store next.
One of my customers, Dave Figueroa, took pictures, so there's a slideshow below.
This was my fifth Free Comic Book Day. I've worked every one since the beginning (aside from 2006, when I had a family reunion to attend instead) and they're always a lot of work, but very rewarding. It's even moreso (on both fronts) when you're the store owner.
We had a great Free Comic Book Day. We ordered just enough, for the most part. We even have a few Spider-Man, Bongo and Justice League left over for next year. My fears of running out of the Umbrella Academy sampler or Spider-Man didn't come true. My only regret is that we didn't order more Astounding Wolf-Man, as we ran out of that about mid-day, and I would have liked to have had it into the night. But in general, everybody got the comics they wanted. We started off giving out three to a person, but in the early afternoon moved to five per person, and by the end of the night it was "one of each of what's left" which equated to somewhere between 6-10 per person, depending on how close it was to the end of the night.
From noon until about 3:30, we had comic book creators in the store signing and sketching. Paul Benjamin was clearly in his element, working the crowd, cracking jokes and signing plenty of autographs. We sold quite a few copies of his Pantheon High manga from Tokyopop, and he signed a whole bunch of his copies of Marvel Adventures Two in One Free Comic Book Day offering. Scott Kolins sold several gorgeous prints of pin-ups and covers he had done, as well as doing many a sketch and signing copies of Omega Flight and other works. Billy Tan had two lithographs (one of Hepzibah, one of the X-Men, I bought both for the store) and two sketchbooks (one guys, one girls, I bought both of those as well) and some gorgeous character illustration pieces, and we sold a few of his Uncanny X-Men issues to sign as well. Billy did quite a few sketches as well (including a Corsair for me and a beautiful inked Batman for a customer). Everybody seemed to have a good time, and we were packed to the gills while the creators were there.
Next year, I definitely want to figure out how to get more press coverage. I sent out a press blurb to a ton of folks, including local TV, radio and news and all the comics news sites, and literally nobody picked it up. Many ran press releases for the big Zeus event CAPE (and that's a great event, if I wasn't running my own FCBD I'd be there every year) and a few also ran press for the last-minute mini small press Con being done by Austin Books (again, great store and a good idea for an event.) I was a little frustrated to be ignored when I thought we had a pretty good event put together and I had taken the time to send out press info in advance, but that's the way it goes. Next time, a full fledged press release, even earlier, and more follow-up. Certainly the lack of coverage didn't cost us anything in terms of attendance.
I worked about 14 hours that day, and well over 40 this week getting ready, but it definitely paid off. Tons of kids and adults came in and got free comics. Everybody seemed to have a good time. And I'd do Free Comic Book Day even if it cost us more money, but instead it was our biggest day for the store yet, even counting our five year history. We did about three to four times our usual Saturday business, and even with the expense of free comics, advertising and related costs, it was a very successful day for us.
Already looking forward to next year, and to figuring out what cool event we can run at the store next.
One of my customers, Dave Figueroa, took pictures, so there's a slideshow below.
Weekly Comics to Come - May 9, 2007
TOP FIVE
Criminal Vol 1 Coward TP (Looking forward to re-reading this all in one sitting, and even more looking forward to the next story arc)
DMZ #19 (Last issue was one of my favorite of the series thus far, previews for this one have looked incredible)
Hack Slash Series #1 (Really good first issue, review up at Comic Pants later this week)
Jack Of Fables #10 (Continues to be fun, and in many ways even better than the series that spawned it)
Killer #4 (More of this beautiful, haunting European series from Archaia)
THE REST
Countdown #51 (OK, I'll at least give the new weekly a shot... like many, though, I have 52 fatigue at this point)
First In Space GN (The story of America's first chimp in space from Oni... I've read it, it's good)
Immortal Iron Fist #5 (Not loving this book, but interested enough to keep reading)
Invincible #41 (Back onboard Invincible again, although the latest issue was a little blood-soaked for my taste)
Marvel Zombies Dead Days (The origin of the Marvel Zombies, by the original creative team)
Noble Causes #29 (I'm behind on Noble Causes, and I need to catch up)
Nova #2 (Very good first issue, looking forward to the second)
Okko Cycle Of Water #3 (Yay, it's Archaia week! Miyazaki-esque adventure book)
Secret History Book Two (Another Archaia book... first issue of this was gorgeous but story didn't quite click, plan on giving it another chance to hook me)
Sollitaria #1 (Intriguing looking new indy book)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #2 (Fun superheroics from Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo)
Star Wars Dark Times #3 (At long last, the third issue of this gorgeously illustrated and well-written Star Wars series comes out)
Thunderbolts #114 (I'm actually really enjoying this cynical anti-hero book)
Two Guns #2 (First issue of this unusual crime thriller was really good... glad to see the second issue arrive in a timely manner, too)
Y The Last Man #56 (Closing in on the end)
Y The Last Man Vol 9 Motherland TP (The penultimate Y The Last Man trade)
Criminal Vol 1 Coward TP (Looking forward to re-reading this all in one sitting, and even more looking forward to the next story arc)
DMZ #19 (Last issue was one of my favorite of the series thus far, previews for this one have looked incredible)
Hack Slash Series #1 (Really good first issue, review up at Comic Pants later this week)
Jack Of Fables #10 (Continues to be fun, and in many ways even better than the series that spawned it)
Killer #4 (More of this beautiful, haunting European series from Archaia)
THE REST
Countdown #51 (OK, I'll at least give the new weekly a shot... like many, though, I have 52 fatigue at this point)
First In Space GN (The story of America's first chimp in space from Oni... I've read it, it's good)
Immortal Iron Fist #5 (Not loving this book, but interested enough to keep reading)
Invincible #41 (Back onboard Invincible again, although the latest issue was a little blood-soaked for my taste)
Marvel Zombies Dead Days (The origin of the Marvel Zombies, by the original creative team)
Noble Causes #29 (I'm behind on Noble Causes, and I need to catch up)
Nova #2 (Very good first issue, looking forward to the second)
Okko Cycle Of Water #3 (Yay, it's Archaia week! Miyazaki-esque adventure book)
Secret History Book Two (Another Archaia book... first issue of this was gorgeous but story didn't quite click, plan on giving it another chance to hook me)
Sollitaria #1 (Intriguing looking new indy book)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #2 (Fun superheroics from Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo)
Star Wars Dark Times #3 (At long last, the third issue of this gorgeously illustrated and well-written Star Wars series comes out)
Thunderbolts #114 (I'm actually really enjoying this cynical anti-hero book)
Two Guns #2 (First issue of this unusual crime thriller was really good... glad to see the second issue arrive in a timely manner, too)
Y The Last Man #56 (Closing in on the end)
Y The Last Man Vol 9 Motherland TP (The penultimate Y The Last Man trade)
Monday, April 30, 2007
Blog Template Update for April
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.
April was a fantastic month for single issue comics. I had a tough time cutting it down to 20, and the books that didn't make the cut included All-Star Superman #7 (a good issue, but one of the weaker ones for the series), Spider-Man Family #2 (great Spidey by Sean McKeever and Kano, good Spidey by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos), three Kirkman books on the cusp (Invincible #40, Irredeemable Ant-Man #7, Walking Dead #37), Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (classic superheroes by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo) and the latest issues of Ex Machina and Manhunter, which should give some indication of how good I think my top 20 were this month. Pretty good month for jumping-on points, too. Four issue ones make the list, and three of the others (DMZ, Fables and Runaways) are new story arcs or new creative teams.
In general, Marvel dominates the market right now, and maybe there's a good reason for that. Although I hated Civil War and I don't like a lot of the editorial direction of the universe in general, I still found 7 books that I really liked, three of which are directly Initiative/Civil War fallout-related, all but one of which is in continuity. Contrast that with DC, where there are two books, The Spirit and Brave and the Bold, which is as out of step with DC's modern, grim and gritty continuity as you can get. Marvel may not be exactly where I want them to be, but it seems that DC has really lost its way, and badly needs re-focusing. Of course, DC also offers Vertigo, where 4 of my favorite books come from. Dark Horse has two perennial favorites (BPRD and Usagi) and one new favorite (Whedon's Buffy). Boom! offers up a strong first issue (hope the second arrives in a timely fashion) with Steven Grant's Two Guns #1, and Adhouse offers up awesome in comic book form with Johnny Hiro #1. And Image has a strong single issue in Ellis and Templesmith's Fell and a potentially great new ongoing in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5.
Graphic novel a day is definitely dead, I just don't have time! In fact, my graphic novel reading for this month was down, such that I had a little trouble putting together a Top 10. Thankfully, a swell of interest in Ben Templesmith's work at the end put three of his graphic novels on there. Interestingly (to me, anyway), there are no Marvel or DC or even Vertigo trades on my list this month. It's all indy, the closest I get to mainstream is one Image book.
As predicted, Andy Barker is D.O.A. Just as well, I guess, as the last few episodes weren't as funny as the first couple. Also unsurprisingly killed on the TV Front, Drive, the new Fox/Tim Minear (a combination that is a synonym for early cancellation), which grudgingly makes my Top 10 (largely based on Nathan Fillion's work) on the basis of the three or four episodes that actually aired. How I Met Your Mother, Studio 60 and Veronica Mars are still M.I.A., but that didn't stop April from being a pretty good month for TV. I fell behind watching Raines and The Riches (although I want to get back to them) and completely gave up on 24 and Black Donnellys (before NBC did). 30 Rock had a fantastic two-part season finale, and here's hoping that Alec Baldwin's personal issues won't crash the show next season (it's certainly crashed my previously high opinion of the man). Heroes came back really strong, with ".07%" and the future episode from last night, and it's easily my second favorite show at the moment. Favorite? Oh, that'd be The Shield, which did an amazing two-part opening arc with Forest Whitaker and continued on in the dark, tense vein of the series after that. Also back, Entourage (not great, but good, and I love Carla Gugino so that earns it bonus points) and Sopranos (slow boil, which I know some folks hate but I'm kind of digging). Scrubs has finally picked up, and something on the NBC promos about "final four Scrubs" made me wonder, is this show ending? If so, it's probably about time, and I'd like it to go out strong. The Office came back and was continuously funny. And Lost has been up and down, but has had some really good episodes, and I'm still very much on board the show.
I fell a little behind on TV and Movie watching and Graphic Novel reading this month because, for the first time in a while, I finally picked up some prose. I've had the Harry Potter bug for a while, but wanting to watch The Order of the Phoenix trailer and knowing that the final book was coming out in July finally spurred me to read the books. So I spent this month reading the six Harry Potter books, and I really enjoyed them. My personal favorite is probably Goblet of Fire, if only because there's so much important set-up in there, followed closely by Half-Blood Prince and Prisoner of Azkaban. My least favorite (although I still really enjoyed it) is probably Order of the Phoenix, because it spent a lot of time building up the bad guys and none of them really got a harsh enough comeuppance for me. It's a good book, but the dark tone went a little far for my tastes. I'm now working my way through the movies (re-watched Sorcerer's Stone, saw Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time), and I'm just waiting for Goblet of Fire (which I know will be disappointing, as I can't imagine fitting enough into even a three-hour movie) from Netflix. In short, though, I was easily swept up into the cult of Harry Potter, and while I'm glad that the character is getting an ending, I'm already hoping that J.K. Rowling will open up the world when she's done with it so we can get comics or something of that nature set in the world. It's such a rich mythology she's created, I'd love to see more of it outside of the Harry Potter-Voldemort epic story.
Tons of new feeds this month. I keep finding artist blogs, like the one from Chad Thomas (talented guy I met at Wizard World Texas), Max Riffner (winner of the Isotope Mini-Comic Award) and Ted Lange (re-mixer of Super Mario and Shakespeare). There are a couple comics blogs I probably should have been reading before now, like Chris's Invincible Super-Blog (which seems like it's undergoing changes now), the amusing Pass/Fail Studios and Christopher Bird's Tetsubo Productions (where he has humorously, but convincingly, been campaigning to be made new writer of The Legion). Then there's Fisticuffs, in which artists' creations face off in imaginary battles voted upon by the readership, probably my favorite new site discovery of the month. Oh, and I once again started visiting The Engine and The Onion, although both are updated so frequently that I don't do much more than skim, in general.
April was a fantastic month for single issue comics. I had a tough time cutting it down to 20, and the books that didn't make the cut included All-Star Superman #7 (a good issue, but one of the weaker ones for the series), Spider-Man Family #2 (great Spidey by Sean McKeever and Kano, good Spidey by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos), three Kirkman books on the cusp (Invincible #40, Irredeemable Ant-Man #7, Walking Dead #37), Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (classic superheroes by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo) and the latest issues of Ex Machina and Manhunter, which should give some indication of how good I think my top 20 were this month. Pretty good month for jumping-on points, too. Four issue ones make the list, and three of the others (DMZ, Fables and Runaways) are new story arcs or new creative teams.
In general, Marvel dominates the market right now, and maybe there's a good reason for that. Although I hated Civil War and I don't like a lot of the editorial direction of the universe in general, I still found 7 books that I really liked, three of which are directly Initiative/Civil War fallout-related, all but one of which is in continuity. Contrast that with DC, where there are two books, The Spirit and Brave and the Bold, which is as out of step with DC's modern, grim and gritty continuity as you can get. Marvel may not be exactly where I want them to be, but it seems that DC has really lost its way, and badly needs re-focusing. Of course, DC also offers Vertigo, where 4 of my favorite books come from. Dark Horse has two perennial favorites (BPRD and Usagi) and one new favorite (Whedon's Buffy). Boom! offers up a strong first issue (hope the second arrives in a timely fashion) with Steven Grant's Two Guns #1, and Adhouse offers up awesome in comic book form with Johnny Hiro #1. And Image has a strong single issue in Ellis and Templesmith's Fell and a potentially great new ongoing in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5.
Graphic novel a day is definitely dead, I just don't have time! In fact, my graphic novel reading for this month was down, such that I had a little trouble putting together a Top 10. Thankfully, a swell of interest in Ben Templesmith's work at the end put three of his graphic novels on there. Interestingly (to me, anyway), there are no Marvel or DC or even Vertigo trades on my list this month. It's all indy, the closest I get to mainstream is one Image book.
As predicted, Andy Barker is D.O.A. Just as well, I guess, as the last few episodes weren't as funny as the first couple. Also unsurprisingly killed on the TV Front, Drive, the new Fox/Tim Minear (a combination that is a synonym for early cancellation), which grudgingly makes my Top 10 (largely based on Nathan Fillion's work) on the basis of the three or four episodes that actually aired. How I Met Your Mother, Studio 60 and Veronica Mars are still M.I.A., but that didn't stop April from being a pretty good month for TV. I fell behind watching Raines and The Riches (although I want to get back to them) and completely gave up on 24 and Black Donnellys (before NBC did). 30 Rock had a fantastic two-part season finale, and here's hoping that Alec Baldwin's personal issues won't crash the show next season (it's certainly crashed my previously high opinion of the man). Heroes came back really strong, with ".07%" and the future episode from last night, and it's easily my second favorite show at the moment. Favorite? Oh, that'd be The Shield, which did an amazing two-part opening arc with Forest Whitaker and continued on in the dark, tense vein of the series after that. Also back, Entourage (not great, but good, and I love Carla Gugino so that earns it bonus points) and Sopranos (slow boil, which I know some folks hate but I'm kind of digging). Scrubs has finally picked up, and something on the NBC promos about "final four Scrubs" made me wonder, is this show ending? If so, it's probably about time, and I'd like it to go out strong. The Office came back and was continuously funny. And Lost has been up and down, but has had some really good episodes, and I'm still very much on board the show.
I fell a little behind on TV and Movie watching and Graphic Novel reading this month because, for the first time in a while, I finally picked up some prose. I've had the Harry Potter bug for a while, but wanting to watch The Order of the Phoenix trailer and knowing that the final book was coming out in July finally spurred me to read the books. So I spent this month reading the six Harry Potter books, and I really enjoyed them. My personal favorite is probably Goblet of Fire, if only because there's so much important set-up in there, followed closely by Half-Blood Prince and Prisoner of Azkaban. My least favorite (although I still really enjoyed it) is probably Order of the Phoenix, because it spent a lot of time building up the bad guys and none of them really got a harsh enough comeuppance for me. It's a good book, but the dark tone went a little far for my tastes. I'm now working my way through the movies (re-watched Sorcerer's Stone, saw Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban for the first time), and I'm just waiting for Goblet of Fire (which I know will be disappointing, as I can't imagine fitting enough into even a three-hour movie) from Netflix. In short, though, I was easily swept up into the cult of Harry Potter, and while I'm glad that the character is getting an ending, I'm already hoping that J.K. Rowling will open up the world when she's done with it so we can get comics or something of that nature set in the world. It's such a rich mythology she's created, I'd love to see more of it outside of the Harry Potter-Voldemort epic story.
Tons of new feeds this month. I keep finding artist blogs, like the one from Chad Thomas (talented guy I met at Wizard World Texas), Max Riffner (winner of the Isotope Mini-Comic Award) and Ted Lange (re-mixer of Super Mario and Shakespeare). There are a couple comics blogs I probably should have been reading before now, like Chris's Invincible Super-Blog (which seems like it's undergoing changes now), the amusing Pass/Fail Studios and Christopher Bird's Tetsubo Productions (where he has humorously, but convincingly, been campaigning to be made new writer of The Legion). Then there's Fisticuffs, in which artists' creations face off in imaginary battles voted upon by the readership, probably my favorite new site discovery of the month. Oh, and I once again started visiting The Engine and The Onion, although both are updated so frequently that I don't do much more than skim, in general.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Cool Gaming Stuff in April
It occurred to me that, though I run a comics and game shop, I really only talk about comics for the most part here. Which might give the impression to the casual onlooker that I don't have much interest in games.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I've been a gamer as long as I've been a comics fan, and while my game collection isn't as extensive as my graphic novel collection, that mostly owes to having gotten rid of large chunks of it every time I've moved. I still have a few gems in my collection, from the beautifully designed Metabarons RPG to the White Wolf Adventure! book (with original fiction from Warren Ellis), and I've got a pretty healthy stock of stuff I still use, like D&D 3.5 and Eberron, HERO System 5th Edition material and a smattering of Feng Shui, Spycraft and Mutants & Masterminds. My board and card game collection is even smaller, but I do have Iron Dragon (a fun fantasy rail game), Lunch Money and way too many D&D Miniatures.
I play in two regular game groups (each one meeting somewhere between every week and every month, closer to the latter of late) and am currently running (with time off between sessions for other campaigns) two campaigns, a Champions game set in Austin and a D&D campaign set in Eberron.
So I thought, why not try a monthly write-up on the cool gaming stuff I saw this month and either purchased for myself or featured at the shop? Thus, this write-up.
For my part, I was prepping for my next D&D adventure in Eberron, so I bought a few more things this month than usual. I finally picked up the Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III to throw some variety at my players, and picked up a decent chunk of the new D&D minis set, Unhallowed, along with buying a few individual key minis off Ebay from various sets in preparation for the next adventure. I picked up two of the Gamemastery Map Tiles sets from Paizo (Dungeon and Haunted Mansion) and the other new Paizo release, the Critical Hit deck. Paizo makes a ton of cool game-related stuff, like their magnetic Combat Pad for keeping track of initiative, and the Crit deck is another new, cool thing. Basically, it's a 52 card deck, and when you confirm a critical hit, you pull a card from the deck. Each card has a listing of critical damage, with four different types (piercing, bludgeoning, slashing and magic). It's a fun little bit of spice for those bored with the "double damage" crits, and gives a bit of flavor to show just what you did that was such critical damage.
As for stuff that came out but I didn't pick up personally: Scion is a new self-contained (three books and out) RPG from White Wolf about the sons and daughters of Gods fighting the Titans and their spawn in modern-day, based on the Exalted rule mechanics. I've always found the World of Darkness a bit goth for my tastes, and Scion and Exalted are closer to my type of gaming. Wizards of the Coast released another map pack, City of Peril (I love that D&D minis has increased the number of full-color maps available for GMs), as well as a new Eberron super-adventure. It's below my current players' level, but I may pick it up at some point to run as a standalone. There was also Munchkin Cthulhu (the latest iteration of Steve Jackson's goofy but addictive spoof card game), new releases for the pre-painted sci-fi AT-43 game and a lot of other stuff. With unlimited time and money, I'm sure I would happily play all of these and more.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. I've been a gamer as long as I've been a comics fan, and while my game collection isn't as extensive as my graphic novel collection, that mostly owes to having gotten rid of large chunks of it every time I've moved. I still have a few gems in my collection, from the beautifully designed Metabarons RPG to the White Wolf Adventure! book (with original fiction from Warren Ellis), and I've got a pretty healthy stock of stuff I still use, like D&D 3.5 and Eberron, HERO System 5th Edition material and a smattering of Feng Shui, Spycraft and Mutants & Masterminds. My board and card game collection is even smaller, but I do have Iron Dragon (a fun fantasy rail game), Lunch Money and way too many D&D Miniatures.
I play in two regular game groups (each one meeting somewhere between every week and every month, closer to the latter of late) and am currently running (with time off between sessions for other campaigns) two campaigns, a Champions game set in Austin and a D&D campaign set in Eberron.
So I thought, why not try a monthly write-up on the cool gaming stuff I saw this month and either purchased for myself or featured at the shop? Thus, this write-up.
For my part, I was prepping for my next D&D adventure in Eberron, so I bought a few more things this month than usual. I finally picked up the Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III to throw some variety at my players, and picked up a decent chunk of the new D&D minis set, Unhallowed, along with buying a few individual key minis off Ebay from various sets in preparation for the next adventure. I picked up two of the Gamemastery Map Tiles sets from Paizo (Dungeon and Haunted Mansion) and the other new Paizo release, the Critical Hit deck. Paizo makes a ton of cool game-related stuff, like their magnetic Combat Pad for keeping track of initiative, and the Crit deck is another new, cool thing. Basically, it's a 52 card deck, and when you confirm a critical hit, you pull a card from the deck. Each card has a listing of critical damage, with four different types (piercing, bludgeoning, slashing and magic). It's a fun little bit of spice for those bored with the "double damage" crits, and gives a bit of flavor to show just what you did that was such critical damage.
As for stuff that came out but I didn't pick up personally: Scion is a new self-contained (three books and out) RPG from White Wolf about the sons and daughters of Gods fighting the Titans and their spawn in modern-day, based on the Exalted rule mechanics. I've always found the World of Darkness a bit goth for my tastes, and Scion and Exalted are closer to my type of gaming. Wizards of the Coast released another map pack, City of Peril (I love that D&D minis has increased the number of full-color maps available for GMs), as well as a new Eberron super-adventure. It's below my current players' level, but I may pick it up at some point to run as a standalone. There was also Munchkin Cthulhu (the latest iteration of Steve Jackson's goofy but addictive spoof card game), new releases for the pre-painted sci-fi AT-43 game and a lot of other stuff. With unlimited time and money, I'm sure I would happily play all of these and more.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - May 2, 2007
It's been a bit hectic, so here are two weeks' worth of comics: the ones I'm reading this week and the ones I read last week.
TOP FIVE
Ancient Book Of Myth And War Hc (Should be a beautiful book, features Scott Morse and a couple other animators doing art on myth and war)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 (First two issues were gold... I'm digging this book)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #1 (New Hellboy! Duncan Fegredo art! Rock.)
Runaways #26 (Good first issue, Whedon's on a roll with me at the moment)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #3 (Second issue was hilarious, now I'm looking forward to reading the third)
THE REST
52 Week #52 (At this point, I'm mostly just relieved it's over... doesn't bode well for my interest in Countdown)
Alien Pig Farm #1 (Looks like fun... hope it doesn't do one issue and vanish, like Bad Planet did)
Avengers Initiative #2 (Enjoyed the first issue more than I thought I would... I'll stick around to see where they're going)
Bizarre New World #1 (Regular dude learns he can fly... interesting)
Civil War Captain America Tp (Best Civil War stories, period... and good continuation of Brubaker's Cap, too)
Danger Girl Body Shots #2 (First issue reminded me that this can be fun, kinda looking forward to reading the second)
Fantastic Four Visionaries Walter Simonson Vol 1 Tp (Interesting stuff, looking forward to reading it again)
Korgi Vol 1 Tp (New all-ages book from Top Shelf, with beautiful art... maybe the next Owly)
Raise The Dead #2 (First issue was a surprisingly solid little zombie tale)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #3 (Second issue wasn't as good as the first, but it still looked great)
Showcase Presents War That Time Forgot Vol 1 Tp (Dinosaurs vs. soldiers... when I have the time, I'll definitely be checking this one out)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #18 (I'm an issue behind, but I want to catch up)
Star Wars Legacy Vol 1 Broken Tp (Need to give this a shot now that it's out in trade form)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #5 (I'm an issue or two behind on this one, which is annoying because it's one of my favorites)
World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker (I'm intrigued, but Greg Pak's work has never done much for me)
LAST WEEK'S TOP FIVE
Agents Of Atlas Premiere HC (Looks great, wish it was oversized... will probably wind up picking it up)
Daredevil #96 (Digging this one, especially with DD getting out and fighting some street crime again)
Fantastic Four #545 (Best FF in years... the new FF takes on the Surfer. Great stuff from McDuffie and Pelletier)
Johnny Hiro #1 (An awesome comic book... one of the most fun books I've read all year)
Usagi Yojimbo #102 (Usagi vs. assassin... go!)
LAST WEEK'S THE REST
52 Week #51 (Wow, do I hate where this one is going. The Mr. Mind thing is really misguided. Although the Animal Man moments were great)
Astro City The Dark Ages 2 #3 (Just... kinda bored. Maybe it'll read better in trade)
Hunter's Moon #1 (Check out Wednesday Number Ones for this week for my thoughts)
Previews Vol #17.5 (Down the Line coming middle of this week)
Shenanigans Gn (Need to read this new graphic novel by Ian Shaughnessy when I get a chance)
Spider-man Visionaries Roger Stern Vol 1 Tp (Not his best stuff yet, but still Roger Stern Spider is worth a look)
Walking Dead #37 (Dealing with Lori's pregnancy, preparing for the assault by the Governor)
TOP FIVE
Ancient Book Of Myth And War Hc (Should be a beautiful book, features Scott Morse and a couple other animators doing art on myth and war)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 (First two issues were gold... I'm digging this book)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #1 (New Hellboy! Duncan Fegredo art! Rock.)
Runaways #26 (Good first issue, Whedon's on a roll with me at the moment)
Marvel Zombies Army Of Darkness #3 (Second issue was hilarious, now I'm looking forward to reading the third)
THE REST
52 Week #52 (At this point, I'm mostly just relieved it's over... doesn't bode well for my interest in Countdown)
Alien Pig Farm #1 (Looks like fun... hope it doesn't do one issue and vanish, like Bad Planet did)
Avengers Initiative #2 (Enjoyed the first issue more than I thought I would... I'll stick around to see where they're going)
Bizarre New World #1 (Regular dude learns he can fly... interesting)
Civil War Captain America Tp (Best Civil War stories, period... and good continuation of Brubaker's Cap, too)
Danger Girl Body Shots #2 (First issue reminded me that this can be fun, kinda looking forward to reading the second)
Fantastic Four Visionaries Walter Simonson Vol 1 Tp (Interesting stuff, looking forward to reading it again)
Korgi Vol 1 Tp (New all-ages book from Top Shelf, with beautiful art... maybe the next Owly)
Raise The Dead #2 (First issue was a surprisingly solid little zombie tale)
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #3 (Second issue wasn't as good as the first, but it still looked great)
Showcase Presents War That Time Forgot Vol 1 Tp (Dinosaurs vs. soldiers... when I have the time, I'll definitely be checking this one out)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane #18 (I'm an issue behind, but I want to catch up)
Star Wars Legacy Vol 1 Broken Tp (Need to give this a shot now that it's out in trade form)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #5 (I'm an issue or two behind on this one, which is annoying because it's one of my favorites)
World War Hulk Prologue World Breaker (I'm intrigued, but Greg Pak's work has never done much for me)
LAST WEEK'S TOP FIVE
Agents Of Atlas Premiere HC (Looks great, wish it was oversized... will probably wind up picking it up)
Daredevil #96 (Digging this one, especially with DD getting out and fighting some street crime again)
Fantastic Four #545 (Best FF in years... the new FF takes on the Surfer. Great stuff from McDuffie and Pelletier)
Johnny Hiro #1 (An awesome comic book... one of the most fun books I've read all year)
Usagi Yojimbo #102 (Usagi vs. assassin... go!)
LAST WEEK'S THE REST
52 Week #51 (Wow, do I hate where this one is going. The Mr. Mind thing is really misguided. Although the Animal Man moments were great)
Astro City The Dark Ages 2 #3 (Just... kinda bored. Maybe it'll read better in trade)
Hunter's Moon #1 (Check out Wednesday Number Ones for this week for my thoughts)
Previews Vol #17.5 (Down the Line coming middle of this week)
Shenanigans Gn (Need to read this new graphic novel by Ian Shaughnessy when I get a chance)
Spider-man Visionaries Roger Stern Vol 1 Tp (Not his best stuff yet, but still Roger Stern Spider is worth a look)
Walking Dead #37 (Dealing with Lori's pregnancy, preparing for the assault by the Governor)
Friday, April 13, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - April 18, 2007
TOP FIVE
Batman And The Mad Monk TP (My favorite Batman story of the last few years, written/drawn by Matt Wagner)
Brave And The Bold #3 (Possibly my favorite DC or Marvel Universe superhero book at the moment)
DMZ #18 (Starts a new story arc, and I'm loving this book)
Ex Machina #27 (After the Smoke Smoke trade, I'm back onboard this one bigger than I have been since the beginning)
Spirit #5 (Another favorite, Darwyn Cooke continues to amaze)
THE REST
52 Week #50 (Two weeks left until Countdown)
Daredevil Devil Inside & Out Vol 2 TP (Brubaker and Lark kick ass on Daredevil... still hoping for a hardcover, though)
Invincible #40 (Always fun, if erratic in shipping)
Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories Gn (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's experimental comics get a trade collection)
Manhunter #30 (Yay! Not cancelled! Now I just hope for a new trade announcement soon)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #12 (Ego Loves Earth! Jeff Parker continues to impress)
Nightwing Annual #2 (Marc Andreyko writes the story of Nightwing and Oracle's broken marriage promise)
Salon GN (Nick Bertozzi's artist noir about a serial killer hunting famous artists in Paris)
World War III (Weird that this is coming out before 52 concludes... curious but wary)
Batman And The Mad Monk TP (My favorite Batman story of the last few years, written/drawn by Matt Wagner)
Brave And The Bold #3 (Possibly my favorite DC or Marvel Universe superhero book at the moment)
DMZ #18 (Starts a new story arc, and I'm loving this book)
Ex Machina #27 (After the Smoke Smoke trade, I'm back onboard this one bigger than I have been since the beginning)
Spirit #5 (Another favorite, Darwyn Cooke continues to amaze)
THE REST
52 Week #50 (Two weeks left until Countdown)
Daredevil Devil Inside & Out Vol 2 TP (Brubaker and Lark kick ass on Daredevil... still hoping for a hardcover, though)
Invincible #40 (Always fun, if erratic in shipping)
Last Sane Cowboy & Other Stories Gn (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's experimental comics get a trade collection)
Manhunter #30 (Yay! Not cancelled! Now I just hope for a new trade announcement soon)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #12 (Ego Loves Earth! Jeff Parker continues to impress)
Nightwing Annual #2 (Marc Andreyko writes the story of Nightwing and Oracle's broken marriage promise)
Salon GN (Nick Bertozzi's artist noir about a serial killer hunting famous artists in Paris)
World War III (Weird that this is coming out before 52 concludes... curious but wary)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The New Legion of Super-Heroes
Christopher Bird is currently running a campaign to become the new writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He's using photoshopped images to demonstrate his plans. These plans are completely awesome.
I'll say this... I'd read it, and I've been kinda bored by the Legion for years now.
I'll say this... I'd read it, and I've been kinda bored by the Legion for years now.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Adventures in Retailing: I Wanna Be Alex Cox when I grow up
Not only is Rocketship a great name for a shop, not only do they have a kickass store complete with great fixtures, logo, T-Shirts, etc.
But Alex Cox is a very smart man, as evidenced by this thread at The Engine.
Our stores are very different, in no small part thanks to geography and customer base, etc., but in general retail philosophy, Alex Cox is one of my retailing role models.
But Alex Cox is a very smart man, as evidenced by this thread at The Engine.
Our stores are very different, in no small part thanks to geography and customer base, etc., but in general retail philosophy, Alex Cox is one of my retailing role models.
Weekly Comics to Come - April 11, 2007
TOP FIVE:
All-Star Superman #7 (Another issue of this book is always cause for celebration)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #2 (Same here, and the first issue of the newest BPRD was great)
Fables #60 (Beginning a new story arc with the regular creative team)
Loners #1 (Interested in this Runaways spinoff, as I like the characters and the art I've seen)
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 5 Dr Death TP (Recently caught up with volumes 3 and 4, looking forward to re-reading more... pure pulp goodness)
THE REST:
28 Days Later The Aftermath (Caught the movie a few months back and really dug it, curious to check out this original follow-up)
All Star Superman Vol 1 HC (I'd be more excited about this one if I hadn't decided to wait and see if they do an Absolute edition of all 12)
Conan & The Midnight God #3 (This King Conan mini has been really good)
Dynamo 5 #2 (Solid first issue of an intriguing new superhero team from Faerber and another impressive artist find)
Fell #8 (It's a rare treat, but I enjoy it when it comes out)
Ferro City Vol 1 TP (Robot noir, great art and interesting story)
Garage Band GN (Beautiful art, interesting concept)
Hack Slash Vol 2 Death By Sequel TP (Lots of fun in this horror/action original)
Heroes For Hire Vol 1 Civil War TP (Want to give this one another chance, based on good buzz and the other work of the writers, who I like a lot)
Madman Atomic Comics #1 (Reviews have been mixed, but it's good to see Allred's Madman back)
Mr. Stuffins #1 (Teddy Bear secret agent from Boom!... curious to check it out)
Nova #1 (New cosmic level Nova ongoing... not my personal favorite version of Nova, but still probably pretty good)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (The operative word is fun, and the creative team (Jeff Parker & Mike Wieringo) definitely ought to be able to offer that)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #17 (David Hahn picked up nicely on art, and McKeever hasn't lost a step either)
Thunderbolts #113 (Dark, satirical, and I'm mostly enjoying it)
Two Guns #1 (New crime comic from Boom!)
Uncanny X-Men #485 (Brubaker & Tan's Uncanny arc draws nearer to its close)
Wasteland #8 (Still curious to see where this one is going)
Wasteland Book 1 Cities In Dust TP (And looking forward to reading it in trade, where I think it'll read better)
All-Star Superman #7 (Another issue of this book is always cause for celebration)
BPRD Garden Of Souls #2 (Same here, and the first issue of the newest BPRD was great)
Fables #60 (Beginning a new story arc with the regular creative team)
Loners #1 (Interested in this Runaways spinoff, as I like the characters and the art I've seen)
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 5 Dr Death TP (Recently caught up with volumes 3 and 4, looking forward to re-reading more... pure pulp goodness)
THE REST:
28 Days Later The Aftermath (Caught the movie a few months back and really dug it, curious to check out this original follow-up)
All Star Superman Vol 1 HC (I'd be more excited about this one if I hadn't decided to wait and see if they do an Absolute edition of all 12)
Conan & The Midnight God #3 (This King Conan mini has been really good)
Dynamo 5 #2 (Solid first issue of an intriguing new superhero team from Faerber and another impressive artist find)
Fell #8 (It's a rare treat, but I enjoy it when it comes out)
Ferro City Vol 1 TP (Robot noir, great art and interesting story)
Garage Band GN (Beautiful art, interesting concept)
Hack Slash Vol 2 Death By Sequel TP (Lots of fun in this horror/action original)
Heroes For Hire Vol 1 Civil War TP (Want to give this one another chance, based on good buzz and the other work of the writers, who I like a lot)
Madman Atomic Comics #1 (Reviews have been mixed, but it's good to see Allred's Madman back)
Mr. Stuffins #1 (Teddy Bear secret agent from Boom!... curious to check it out)
Nova #1 (New cosmic level Nova ongoing... not my personal favorite version of Nova, but still probably pretty good)
Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 (The operative word is fun, and the creative team (Jeff Parker & Mike Wieringo) definitely ought to be able to offer that)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #17 (David Hahn picked up nicely on art, and McKeever hasn't lost a step either)
Thunderbolts #113 (Dark, satirical, and I'm mostly enjoying it)
Two Guns #1 (New crime comic from Boom!)
Uncanny X-Men #485 (Brubaker & Tan's Uncanny arc draws nearer to its close)
Wasteland #8 (Still curious to see where this one is going)
Wasteland Book 1 Cities In Dust TP (And looking forward to reading it in trade, where I think it'll read better)
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Comicon Las Vegas
Katherine Keller of Sequential Tart has an excellent article up arguing why the San Diego Comicon should make plans to move to Vegas sooner rather than later.
I agree whole-heartedly. I love San Diego, and the town is part of the reason I'm always excited to go, but it's gotten to where you have to book your hotel a year in advance, and even then there's no guarantee. Vegas would have no such problems, the flights would be cheaper from almost anywhere (meaning more money to spend at the Con itself) and the city certainly doesn't lack for other things to do.
I really hope that the planners behind Comicon are looking into this. I love San Diego, but just as with last year, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to attend, simply because I can't find a place to stay that's anywhere within reasonable distance. And I started looking in February, five months before the convention takes place.
I agree whole-heartedly. I love San Diego, and the town is part of the reason I'm always excited to go, but it's gotten to where you have to book your hotel a year in advance, and even then there's no guarantee. Vegas would have no such problems, the flights would be cheaper from almost anywhere (meaning more money to spend at the Con itself) and the city certainly doesn't lack for other things to do.
I really hope that the planners behind Comicon are looking into this. I love San Diego, but just as with last year, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to attend, simply because I can't find a place to stay that's anywhere within reasonable distance. And I started looking in February, five months before the convention takes place.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Good News in Threes
Yay!
1. 30 Rock has been renewed for another season. To see one reason why this is a good thing, check this out:
2. Comics are on their way to Austin as we speak
3. The Shield is back, and it's awesome. As always. Sopranos and Entourage start again on Sunday.
1. 30 Rock has been renewed for another season. To see one reason why this is a good thing, check this out:
2. Comics are on their way to Austin as we speak
3. The Shield is back, and it's awesome. As always. Sopranos and Entourage start again on Sunday.
Adventures in Retailing: Uh... where's the fourth box?
So today I got acquainted with one of those delights of retailing, the unfortunate UPS/Diamond shipping mishap. It's happened a lot, usually with one region getting their books a week ahead of time. Minor when it's something like Madman shipping out of L.A. this week, Plattsburgh next. Major when it's Civil War shipping to everywhere but the West Coast one week, then out to the West Coast the next.
But there are also those that just hit one retailer, and not his local competition. UPS ships a lot of boxes, so does Diamond, mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunately, we happen to be in a business where product as late as a day late is worth less, because a fanatical customer base will sometimes go to another store in town regardless of loyalty to get their weekly fix. It's the downside of creating such a rabidly devoted fanbase.
So this was a big week. Dark Tower #3, Buffy #2, the last part of Planet Hulk, Avengers: The Initiative #1, the first part of Fallen Son, the first issue of Joss Whedon's Runaways... and out of that list, we only got one of those books. The rest (along with several others) were stuck in Houston. Which doesn't seem insurmountable, given that Houston is only about three hours away and I was willing to drive, but I was pretty much told they weren't going to let me in if I went there, and even if I had gone, I wouldn't have been back until many of my customers had already stopped in.
It couldn't have been the box with the Batman free Heroclix for Free Comic Book Day that went missing. Or the one with about three or four smaller books. No, it had to be the heaviest one, packed with all the big sellers.
It was a frustrating morning. I yelled about every obscenity I knew on the long drive back from the UPS center to the shop, and tried desperately to come up with some great tactic that would make customers coming in pick up something else, then come back for their comics on Thursday. There isn't one, by the way... on Wednesday, folks want what they want, they don't want a substitute. I was frustrated and pissed off and, given that this is the first week we've had to do Wednesday morning pulls, maybe even a little worried.
But here's the upside: We still had a pretty good day. Not just sales-wise, although I have to say that the sales hit was less than I thought, thanks to Dark Tower, 52, the new Omega Flight and a number of other mid-level books that we did get. No, mostly it was in seeing that in such a situation, I can count on the people around me. My staff commiserated with me but didn't let me wallow, nor did they wallow themselves. They buckled down and did their jobs. They told every customer what had gone on with a sense of good humor, they worked their asses off on a busy day... one of my staffers asked if I needed him tomorrow morning and didn't complain for a second about having to get up early the next day when he was supposed to have a mid-day shift. I have the best staff in the world.
And some of the best customers, too. Everyone was sympathetic, nobody got mad at us, everybody made plans to come back tomorrow or just hold off and pick stuff up with next week's pulls. All told, we lost some day's sales, but I don't think that many folks went driving somewhere else to get the copy today. We've always done right by them, they remembered that and they rewarded us for it.
It sucks to have something like this happen, especially on a huge week like this one. And yeah, it was a shitty morning and a hectic day. But in the end, it turned out to be kind of a positive, as I was reminded once again that I'm lucky to have a good store, a great staff and a great bunch of customers.
Not so positive an experience that I want it to ever happen again, mind you. :)
But there are also those that just hit one retailer, and not his local competition. UPS ships a lot of boxes, so does Diamond, mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunately, we happen to be in a business where product as late as a day late is worth less, because a fanatical customer base will sometimes go to another store in town regardless of loyalty to get their weekly fix. It's the downside of creating such a rabidly devoted fanbase.
So this was a big week. Dark Tower #3, Buffy #2, the last part of Planet Hulk, Avengers: The Initiative #1, the first part of Fallen Son, the first issue of Joss Whedon's Runaways... and out of that list, we only got one of those books. The rest (along with several others) were stuck in Houston. Which doesn't seem insurmountable, given that Houston is only about three hours away and I was willing to drive, but I was pretty much told they weren't going to let me in if I went there, and even if I had gone, I wouldn't have been back until many of my customers had already stopped in.
It couldn't have been the box with the Batman free Heroclix for Free Comic Book Day that went missing. Or the one with about three or four smaller books. No, it had to be the heaviest one, packed with all the big sellers.
It was a frustrating morning. I yelled about every obscenity I knew on the long drive back from the UPS center to the shop, and tried desperately to come up with some great tactic that would make customers coming in pick up something else, then come back for their comics on Thursday. There isn't one, by the way... on Wednesday, folks want what they want, they don't want a substitute. I was frustrated and pissed off and, given that this is the first week we've had to do Wednesday morning pulls, maybe even a little worried.
But here's the upside: We still had a pretty good day. Not just sales-wise, although I have to say that the sales hit was less than I thought, thanks to Dark Tower, 52, the new Omega Flight and a number of other mid-level books that we did get. No, mostly it was in seeing that in such a situation, I can count on the people around me. My staff commiserated with me but didn't let me wallow, nor did they wallow themselves. They buckled down and did their jobs. They told every customer what had gone on with a sense of good humor, they worked their asses off on a busy day... one of my staffers asked if I needed him tomorrow morning and didn't complain for a second about having to get up early the next day when he was supposed to have a mid-day shift. I have the best staff in the world.
And some of the best customers, too. Everyone was sympathetic, nobody got mad at us, everybody made plans to come back tomorrow or just hold off and pick stuff up with next week's pulls. All told, we lost some day's sales, but I don't think that many folks went driving somewhere else to get the copy today. We've always done right by them, they remembered that and they rewarded us for it.
It sucks to have something like this happen, especially on a huge week like this one. And yeah, it was a shitty morning and a hectic day. But in the end, it turned out to be kind of a positive, as I was reminded once again that I'm lucky to have a good store, a great staff and a great bunch of customers.
Not so positive an experience that I want it to ever happen again, mind you. :)
Monday, April 02, 2007
Blog Template Update for March
This is the latest monthly update to the right column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.
Well, March was a hell of a month for comics. For me personally, I didn't have a ton of new stuff, but I did have to pare down the list to get to 20, and there were a lot of good graphic novels. For me as a new retailer, it was a phenomenal month. The Death of Captain America, the new Buffy comic, The Dark Tower series, etc. etc. There were a couple new books I liked, including Jay Faerber's new superhero book Dynamo 5, McDuffie and McKone taking over the FF and Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's excellent first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but mostly it was reliable favorites. 3 DC books (Spirit, Brave and the Bold and Manhunter, the common denominator of the first two is fun and the third is just an example of how to take advantage of the ongoing series format), 8 Marvel (despite my hatred of Civil War, which probably speaks to the level of talent at Marvel right now), only 2 Vertigo (no Jack of Fables or American Virgin in March, and Fables was a little weak) and 7 indies (2 Dark Horse, 3 Image, 1 Oni, 1 Devil's Due).
Graphic novel a day may be pretty much dead as a feature. It's not that I'm not reading them, it's that I just can't seem to find the time and energy to write about them. At any rate, I think I read more like a graphic novel every other day, but the Daredevil Omnibus took me four days to get through, and then I was inspired to go back and reread Born Again (pretty damn good) and Man Without Fear (not as good as I'd remembered.) I also tried to read the Daredevil/Elektra Love and War HC with Elektra: Assassin in it, but found it pretentious and boring and didn't get past issue one of Elektra: Assassin.
No new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Studio 60 or Veronica Mars. Only two episodes of 30 Rock, but they were both really good. Heroes only had one, "Parasite," but it was a phenomenal episode, maybe the second best in the show's history, after "Company Man" the previous week. Thankfully, Andy Barker P.I. is a really funny new show (that's probably dead, given that it's smart and quirky) and The Riches is dark, features a brilliant cast and has my mild interest. Raines is imperfect and probably going to get old but has some style and a great lead actor in Jeff Goldblum, not to mention a terrific (and underused) supporting actress in Nicole Sullivan. Finally got around to watching the first episode of The Black Donnellys, and I like it... good crime stuff, maybe not exceptional when compared to stuff like The Shield, but certainly watchable... of course, I haven't watched the rest of the episodes on my Tivo, which tells you how deep my interest runs. Good thing, too, as it's been pulled to make way for a reality show about jackasses crashing real weddings... which the (stupid) couple is in on. Yeah, gay marriage would totally cheapen the institution, but bringing on the producers of Punk'd to ruin it weekly on national television, that's fucking perfectly acceptable. I'm annoyed the show is even on the air, I'd be livid if it were replacing something I really liked.
As for the familiar shows... Scrubs has been pretty weak, but came on strong late in the month, and besides, pickings are kinda slim right now for new episodes. Battlestar Galactica, after stumbling around punch-drunk ever since the show lifted off from New Caprica, delivers a nice one-two punch of a season ender. Now if only they can come on stronger next season and really follow up on all that potential... hopefully with an ending before the whole thing just gets old. Lost also stumbled a bit early this year, but has had some really strong episodes lately, and the confrontation between Ben and Locke was probably one of the best moments of the show ever. And 24... well, it's 24. Formulaic, getting predictable, but serving up good action and amusingly predictable "24" moments of torture, Kiefer Sutherland yelling and impossible to believe bad security at CTU. The latest episode, which sees Jack teaming up to fight crime with a developmentally disabled man who was working with his brother the mercenary terrorist, was cringe-worthy. I might be done with 24. Fortunately, April sees the return of The Shield, Entourage and The Sopranos, as well as Heroes, so it's looking like a good TV month.
My novel for March was Gates of Fire. Which I borrowed, but haven't read. Novel of the month is just a spectacular failure, I guess.
This was a month for discovering a ton of new feeds. There was a new webcomic out of New Orleans, starring my friend Leo and written/drawn by Josh Neufeld (New Orleans A.D. After the Deluge), there was the re-independencing of Comics, Covered, and through links to Comic Pants, I found an interesting comics review/commentary site called Blurred Productions. But mostly, it was a month of finding people whose work I love doing blogs. I was delighted to find blogs for Becky Cloonan, Cliff Chiang and Vasilis Lolos, three of my favorite artists. I was interested to find a blog from TV writer Jane Espenson. A link to the brilliant Steampunk Star Wars art he's doing lead me to Eric Poulton. And most importantly, a random link from Entertainment Weekly let me find the site of Alan Sepinwall, professional TV critic whose writings I've been reading since I found a link from rec.arts.comics usenet to his NYPD Blue recap sites. Alan is one of the best TV critics I've read, both because his tastes seem to synch up nicely with mine and because he can write in a style that is witty, intelligent, insightful and yet relatively spoiler-free. I'm delighted to be able to read his writing on a regular basis again.
Well, March was a hell of a month for comics. For me personally, I didn't have a ton of new stuff, but I did have to pare down the list to get to 20, and there were a lot of good graphic novels. For me as a new retailer, it was a phenomenal month. The Death of Captain America, the new Buffy comic, The Dark Tower series, etc. etc. There were a couple new books I liked, including Jay Faerber's new superhero book Dynamo 5, McDuffie and McKone taking over the FF and Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty's excellent first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but mostly it was reliable favorites. 3 DC books (Spirit, Brave and the Bold and Manhunter, the common denominator of the first two is fun and the third is just an example of how to take advantage of the ongoing series format), 8 Marvel (despite my hatred of Civil War, which probably speaks to the level of talent at Marvel right now), only 2 Vertigo (no Jack of Fables or American Virgin in March, and Fables was a little weak) and 7 indies (2 Dark Horse, 3 Image, 1 Oni, 1 Devil's Due).
Graphic novel a day may be pretty much dead as a feature. It's not that I'm not reading them, it's that I just can't seem to find the time and energy to write about them. At any rate, I think I read more like a graphic novel every other day, but the Daredevil Omnibus took me four days to get through, and then I was inspired to go back and reread Born Again (pretty damn good) and Man Without Fear (not as good as I'd remembered.) I also tried to read the Daredevil/Elektra Love and War HC with Elektra: Assassin in it, but found it pretentious and boring and didn't get past issue one of Elektra: Assassin.
No new episodes of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Studio 60 or Veronica Mars. Only two episodes of 30 Rock, but they were both really good. Heroes only had one, "Parasite," but it was a phenomenal episode, maybe the second best in the show's history, after "Company Man" the previous week. Thankfully, Andy Barker P.I. is a really funny new show (that's probably dead, given that it's smart and quirky) and The Riches is dark, features a brilliant cast and has my mild interest. Raines is imperfect and probably going to get old but has some style and a great lead actor in Jeff Goldblum, not to mention a terrific (and underused) supporting actress in Nicole Sullivan. Finally got around to watching the first episode of The Black Donnellys, and I like it... good crime stuff, maybe not exceptional when compared to stuff like The Shield, but certainly watchable... of course, I haven't watched the rest of the episodes on my Tivo, which tells you how deep my interest runs. Good thing, too, as it's been pulled to make way for a reality show about jackasses crashing real weddings... which the (stupid) couple is in on. Yeah, gay marriage would totally cheapen the institution, but bringing on the producers of Punk'd to ruin it weekly on national television, that's fucking perfectly acceptable. I'm annoyed the show is even on the air, I'd be livid if it were replacing something I really liked.
As for the familiar shows... Scrubs has been pretty weak, but came on strong late in the month, and besides, pickings are kinda slim right now for new episodes. Battlestar Galactica, after stumbling around punch-drunk ever since the show lifted off from New Caprica, delivers a nice one-two punch of a season ender. Now if only they can come on stronger next season and really follow up on all that potential... hopefully with an ending before the whole thing just gets old. Lost also stumbled a bit early this year, but has had some really strong episodes lately, and the confrontation between Ben and Locke was probably one of the best moments of the show ever. And 24... well, it's 24. Formulaic, getting predictable, but serving up good action and amusingly predictable "24" moments of torture, Kiefer Sutherland yelling and impossible to believe bad security at CTU. The latest episode, which sees Jack teaming up to fight crime with a developmentally disabled man who was working with his brother the mercenary terrorist, was cringe-worthy. I might be done with 24. Fortunately, April sees the return of The Shield, Entourage and The Sopranos, as well as Heroes, so it's looking like a good TV month.
My novel for March was Gates of Fire. Which I borrowed, but haven't read. Novel of the month is just a spectacular failure, I guess.
This was a month for discovering a ton of new feeds. There was a new webcomic out of New Orleans, starring my friend Leo and written/drawn by Josh Neufeld (New Orleans A.D. After the Deluge), there was the re-independencing of Comics, Covered, and through links to Comic Pants, I found an interesting comics review/commentary site called Blurred Productions. But mostly, it was a month of finding people whose work I love doing blogs. I was delighted to find blogs for Becky Cloonan, Cliff Chiang and Vasilis Lolos, three of my favorite artists. I was interested to find a blog from TV writer Jane Espenson. A link to the brilliant Steampunk Star Wars art he's doing lead me to Eric Poulton. And most importantly, a random link from Entertainment Weekly let me find the site of Alan Sepinwall, professional TV critic whose writings I've been reading since I found a link from rec.arts.comics usenet to his NYPD Blue recap sites. Alan is one of the best TV critics I've read, both because his tastes seem to synch up nicely with mine and because he can write in a style that is witty, intelligent, insightful and yet relatively spoiler-free. I'm delighted to be able to read his writing on a regular basis again.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Weekly Comics to Come - April 4, 2007
TOP FIVE
American Virgin #13 (The latest story has been really good, and just reintroduced one of my favorite characters)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (First issue was excellent, I'm really looking forward to reading the second)
Jack Of Fables #9 (After three weaker issues of Fables, the spinoff has surpassed its parent... this book is a whole lot of fun)
Runaways #25 (After Buffy #1, Whedon has the benefit of the doubt for me again... even though he's moving the team to New York and only writing 6 issues)
Elk's Run GN (Really looking forward to reading the whole story of this... I think the story belongs in graphic novel format, and the issues were just tantalizing enough to have me wondering how it all ends up)
THE REST
52 Week #48 (If pressed, I couldn't really tell you what's happening in this book. I'm reading it, and mostly enjoying it, but it's making no impact at all)
Avengers Initiative #1 (I'm not sure I like it as the status quo for the Marvel Universe, but in a vacuum, the 50 state initiative is kind of a neat idea, and Dan Slott is writing... I'll at least give this a look)
Immortal Iron Fist #4 (I think I might rather read this in trade... I like it, but the pacing is kinda slow)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #7 (Still a fun, unusual book)
Omega Flight #1 (Love Scott Kolins art, lukewarm on Oeming's writing, not crazy about the concept for this team)
Spider-Man Family #2 (Features a story by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos, looking forward to seeing how it turns out)
American Virgin #13 (The latest story has been really good, and just reintroduced one of my favorite characters)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 (First issue was excellent, I'm really looking forward to reading the second)
Jack Of Fables #9 (After three weaker issues of Fables, the spinoff has surpassed its parent... this book is a whole lot of fun)
Runaways #25 (After Buffy #1, Whedon has the benefit of the doubt for me again... even though he's moving the team to New York and only writing 6 issues)
Elk's Run GN (Really looking forward to reading the whole story of this... I think the story belongs in graphic novel format, and the issues were just tantalizing enough to have me wondering how it all ends up)
THE REST
52 Week #48 (If pressed, I couldn't really tell you what's happening in this book. I'm reading it, and mostly enjoying it, but it's making no impact at all)
Avengers Initiative #1 (I'm not sure I like it as the status quo for the Marvel Universe, but in a vacuum, the 50 state initiative is kind of a neat idea, and Dan Slott is writing... I'll at least give this a look)
Immortal Iron Fist #4 (I think I might rather read this in trade... I like it, but the pacing is kinda slow)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #7 (Still a fun, unusual book)
Omega Flight #1 (Love Scott Kolins art, lukewarm on Oeming's writing, not crazy about the concept for this team)
Spider-Man Family #2 (Features a story by Paul Benjamin and Vasilis Lolos, looking forward to seeing how it turns out)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
My Daughter's Birthday
Katy turns four today. She shares her birthday with Mariah Carey, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Jamiroquai and Quentin Tarantino.
This year we bought her a scooter, which she loves and is learning to use. Don't worry... we also bought her a helmet.
This year we bought her a scooter, which she loves and is learning to use. Don't worry... we also bought her a helmet.
Weekly Comics to Come - March 28, 2007
TOP FIVE:
Daredevil #95 (Last arc wrapped strong, where does Brubaker go from here?)
DMZ #17 (Finale of the latest arc, which has been really good)
Fables #59 (The readers questions issue... should be very interesting)
Fantastic Four #544 (Dwayne McDuffie's run on FF starts in earnest this issue)
Pirates of Coney Island #5 (The story of Cadillacula revealed! One of my favorite series of the moment)
THE REST:
52 Week #47 (Big happenings as the series draws to a close... only 5 weeks left)
Gamekeeper #1 (Andy Diggle and Guy Ritchie doing a comic... I'm there, even if Virgin's offerings mostly leave me cold)
Godland #17 (More cosmic super action from Casey and Scioli)
Grendel Devil By The Deed Hc (Looking forward to digging back into Grendel)
Half Dead Tp (Vampires, conspiracies, secret agents and paramilitary units... a good mix)
Houdini Handcuff King Center Of Cartoon Studies Hc (True tales of Houdini by Jason Lutes)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 1 HC (Finally, Miyazawa's gorgeous art and McKeever's great stories in oversized format that shows them off)
Previews #27.4 (Down the Line is already half-written... no huge delays this month)
Superman Confidential #4 (Running late, but probably worth the wait)
Texas Strangers #1 (All-ages fun from Image)
Usagi Yojimbo #101 (After a terrific roast issue, back to more traditional samurai stories)
Wonder Woman #6 (I'll check out Jodi Picoult's intro, but honestly, after Heinberg's more or less aborted run, my interest is lower than ever)
Daredevil #95 (Last arc wrapped strong, where does Brubaker go from here?)
DMZ #17 (Finale of the latest arc, which has been really good)
Fables #59 (The readers questions issue... should be very interesting)
Fantastic Four #544 (Dwayne McDuffie's run on FF starts in earnest this issue)
Pirates of Coney Island #5 (The story of Cadillacula revealed! One of my favorite series of the moment)
THE REST:
52 Week #47 (Big happenings as the series draws to a close... only 5 weeks left)
Gamekeeper #1 (Andy Diggle and Guy Ritchie doing a comic... I'm there, even if Virgin's offerings mostly leave me cold)
Godland #17 (More cosmic super action from Casey and Scioli)
Grendel Devil By The Deed Hc (Looking forward to digging back into Grendel)
Half Dead Tp (Vampires, conspiracies, secret agents and paramilitary units... a good mix)
Houdini Handcuff King Center Of Cartoon Studies Hc (True tales of Houdini by Jason Lutes)
Spider-man Loves Mary Jane Vol 1 HC (Finally, Miyazawa's gorgeous art and McKeever's great stories in oversized format that shows them off)
Previews #27.4 (Down the Line is already half-written... no huge delays this month)
Superman Confidential #4 (Running late, but probably worth the wait)
Texas Strangers #1 (All-ages fun from Image)
Usagi Yojimbo #101 (After a terrific roast issue, back to more traditional samurai stories)
Wonder Woman #6 (I'll check out Jodi Picoult's intro, but honestly, after Heinberg's more or less aborted run, my interest is lower than ever)
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