Weekly Comics to Come - January 16, 2008

Surprise! I'm not *just* writing about politics, I also cover comics from time to time. :)

TOP FIVE
76 #1 (This looks like a blast, a great riff on '70s comics)
American Virgin #22 (Closing in on the end, and this remains one of my favorite comics)
Incredible Hercules #113 (A really fun use of an under-used hero, great work by Pak, Van Lente & the rest)
Miki Falls Vol 4 Winter (Mark Crilley's romance/supernatural manga concludes, and I can't wait to see how it ends)
Resurrection #2 (First issue of this post-alien invasion book was really good)

THE REST
Angel After The Fall #3 (I've been digging season six of Angel almost as much as season eight of Buffy)
Atomic Robo #4 (Tons of fun, great art, as always)
Bone Vol 7 Ghost Circles Color Ed SC (Yay! Getting ever closer to having the whole Bone saga complete in color)
DMZ #27 (Guest art by Nathan Fox, which is awesome, another single issue story from the DMZ)
Fell #9 (Wow, I wasn't sure we'd ever see this book again!)
Fight For Tomorrow Tp (Early Brian Wood Vertigo work that I want to check out)
Grendel Behold The Devil #3 (I'm an issue behind, but I loved #1, and I really need to catch up)
Hawaiian Dick #2 (Solid first issue, beautiful art by Scott Chantler, looking forward to reading more)
Hulk The End Premiere HC (Hate the premiere hardcover format, but I love both the stories in this collection)
Immortal Iron Fist #12 (Reads *much* better in trade, but still fun reading in single issues)
Lifelike HC (Dara Naraghi, a small press genius, finally gets his due from IDW with this hardcover of short stories)
Thunderbolts By Ellis Vol 1 Faith In Monsters TP (The softcover of Ellis and Deodato's great supervillain book)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #5 (I don't understand it half the time, but it's beautiful and fun)
World War Hulk Aftersmash Warbound #2 (Promising first issue, but I'm more excited to see what happens now that all the setup is out of the way)

How The Media is Fucking Up The Election

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi writes a cynical, caustic and hilarious piece on political reporting. I thought I was bitter and jaded about the political process, but I'm a wide-eyed newborn compared to Taibbi. Read the whole thing, and definitely stick around for the last paragraph, which is laugh out loud funny.

I love Rolling Stone's political coverage, it's probably my favorite RSS feed for politics.

Another Reason to Vote Obama

Karl Rove, manipulative turd to the stars, seems to admire Hilary Clinton and dismisses Obama.

I don't care what party you're in... if Karl Rove likes you, that's not a good sign.

Holy Crap

TSA Searches, Detains 5 Year Old Boy

Jesus, I hope this never happens to us. Because I know that with me, this story ends with me being tased and arrested after BITING OUT THE FUCKING THROAT of the idiot who tried to take my kid away from me in front of witnesses.

TSA or no TSA.

It Ain't Over Yet

Unfortunately.

Clinton is looking like the winner in New Hampshire. CNN notes in its article that New Hampshire has an older base, and that a lot of the independents voted Republican, and voted for McCain.

I don't know what this means in the context of who's going to get the nomination, or in terms of the Presidential election. Certainly it's disappointing, and not what I expected. I honestly thought Hilary was going to get her ass handed to her in New Hampshire, or at best that she'd lose by a narrow margin. After Iowa, and polls showing a 10 point lead for Obama in New Hampshire, I didn't think she could win, even though I'll be first to admit that polling is an inexact science at best.

Bummer for me and other Obama supporters tonight. I had hoped to have a clear indication that Obama was going to be the candidate, but clearly we're going to have to wait it out until Super Tuesday.

Here's the thing... McCain won in New Hampshire. And though I hold my nose at the very thought of it, given his desperate attempts to ingratiate himself with the insane Bush-era Republican leadership, I'd probably vote for McCain over Clinton. Which would be my first vote for a Republican ever.

EMusic "Trial" Subscription

Edited to add: Well, that was unexpected. After I posted my rant, which was basically blowing off steam, I was contacted by email by someone from eMusic who refunded my money and explained that I had canceled my music account, but must have accidentally signed up for an Audiobooks account. I didn't think that there were two separate accounts, which was my mistake.

So essentially, in terms of customer service, I take it all back. Getting back to one guy blowing off steam on a blog is really going above and beyond, especially when I'd basically said I probably wasn't going to be an eMusic customer anyway. So instead I'll say that if, unlike me, you're more interested in a wider selection of less well-known bands and trying a bunch of stuff out rather than ala carte buying a handful of music each year, you might give eMusic a try. Because that's pretty good customer service right there.

Original post below:
Netflix, which I love, has advertising on their disc sleeves for various products and services. One of those, back in November, was for a free trial of EMusic. I'm pretty happy with iTunes, but these were DRM-free MP3s, and it had an interesting subscription/price structure that still allowed you to own your music, so I figured I'd give it a try.

I wound up picking up albums from Spoon, Gogol Bordello and Pain and an audiobook from James Ellroy, but I couldn't find most of what I was looking for, and I decided that the service just wasn't for me. I don't have time to discover new bands and new sounds while I'm paying for the time, which seems more like the focus of eMusic.

No harm, no foul. I was a member for about 20 minutes, I went and canceled the account. Wasn't really looking for the music I downloaded, but it was good, and it was free.

Then I go through my VISA statement today and discover that I was charged the $9.99, despite having canceled immediately. Not only that, I was charged $9.99 again a month later. Clearly, my "trial" subscription was still active. After being unable to find a customer service phone number (which you can find here, I guess I didn't look carefully enough) I went over and canceled my subscription again, and this time I saved the email with my cancellation. If I don't get charged again, I'll call it a learning experience, and I've still paid $20 for three albums, which is fair, even if I would rather have spent those $20 on iTunes for albums and audiobooks I really wanted.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 9, 2008

TOP FIVE
Bprd 1946 #1 (World War II era BPRD, another great artist, I love the number of good BPRD/Hellboy spinoffs we're getting)
Foundation #1 (Intriguing little X-Files meets Nostrodamus book from Boom!, I've read the first issue and it's great)
Nova #10 (Another spectacularly good issue of Marvel's best book)
Spirit #12 (Darwyn Cooke's run comes to an end, and since #11 was so good, I have high hopes for a strong finale)
Youngblood #1 (Joe Casey and Derec Donovan, I'm interested to see this and hope it'll be fun)

THE REST
30 Days Of Night Red Snow TP (I can finally read the entirety of Ben Templesmith's World War II era vampire tale)
Bprd Vol 7 Garden Of Souls TP (Steampunk robots vs. Abe Sapien, plus plenty more)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #7 (Hulk and Silver Surfer, with David Nakayama returning on art)
Nightwing #140 (Rags Morales on art, Peter Tomasi writing, I'll check in and see what's up)
North Wind #1 (Post-apocalyptic climate change book from Boom!, very nice art and promising story)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #5 (Enjoyed the last issue quite a bit, I'll be back for this one too)

Obama Wins Iowa

Aw hells yeah.

Even better? Hilary Clinton came in third.

Blog Update for December 2007

This is the latest monthly update to the sidebar 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.

Turns out December is a busy month when you've got family and own a retail business. I barely had any time to do extra reading this month, and the writer's strike turned out to be a blessing in disguise for my free time, even if it does make all my fears of future corporate domination seem all too real.

It was a pretty good month for comics, and there were a dozen or so books that didn't make my cut-off for best of 20, including, for the second month in a row, issues of Batman and the Outsiders (DC), Angel (IDW), Fearless (Image) and plenty of others. Marvel dominated again, with 10 comics, and two of those had two issues in the month, so technically it's a dozen. Image had 4 (Dynamo 5 plus three promising newcomers), Dark Horse had 2 (although I haven't had the chance to read BPRD or Lobster Johnson, both of which might have made the cut), IDW had 1 (although it was a great one, new Wormwood) and Oni had 1 with their interesting new book Resurrection. DC scores the other 2 with Vertigo, and again the mainstream DC Universe has little to nothing to offer me.

With the Writer's Strike, it looks like I'll just put my Top 10 shows on hold for the time being. In fact, I took the rather shocking (for those who know me) step of dropping my cable down to the very basic minimum this month, and that mostly for my daughter's shows. Honestly, I've got a huge backlog of DVDs to get to, plus a Netflix queue I've been neglecting, plus the XBox with Rock Band and some other games... my free time is more than covered.

Year End Recap Internet Meme

I'm planning to write some kind of "Year in Review" post, but since I probably won't have time for that, this meme, posted by Steve Rolston amongst other bloggers I read, appealed to me:

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Had a son. Bought a business. Played Rock Band. Canceled my digital cable.

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make resolutions, usually. If I had, I'm sure I would have failed at them. See also, why I don't make resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Well, there was my wife. And my sister had her second son. And one of my employees and friends had a boy with his wife. So yeah, it was a big year for births.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope, this year was pretty clear as far as that went.

5. What countries did you visit?
I visited California, which is *like* another country when you're visiting from Texas. Also, on December 31st, through the miracle of Rock Band, I visited the United States of Rocking Out.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Money. Or alternatively, the ability to not stress about money and whether or not we have enough of it to survive now and into the future.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
February 19, the day I officially bought the comics shop. And June 11, the day my son Aaron was born.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I bought a comic shop, and managed to avoid running it into the ground for the entire year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I freaked out way too often about how the business/our personal finances were doing, and I took on so much that I feel like some things (comic reviewing in particular) suffered.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Aside from a couple evil cold/flu type things, not really.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Rogues Gallery Comics & Games. And I didn't buy them, but getting an XBox 360 and Rock Band for Christmas qualifies as my favorite material things acquired for the year, aside from the store.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food... we spend a shocking amount of money on groceries every month. Then the mortgage, ever-more costly gas, health insurance, preschool bills, etc. Nothing fun, really.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Wow, I sound like a broken record, but the birth of my son and buying the store.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
I don't tend to link music and memory, but if anything sticks, it'll probably be either The Fratellis - Flathead because that song cheered me up a lot when I was stressed or The Humpty Dance by The Digital Underground due to a number of inside jokes at the store in the last few months.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Older or wiser?
Yes and probably no.

Thinner or fatter?
About the same. So fat. :)

Richer or poorer?
Poorer. But my *future* financial prospects are much stronger, if we can survive the duration of the business loan.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Gone outside, exercised, spent time with my wife and kids (because no matter how much time I spend, it's never enough).

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Messing around on the Internet. Like I'm doing. Right. Now. So this will be the same answer in 2008, probably.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Visited the in-laws in Dallas the week before, had Christmas Eve at our house with my parents. If only my sister and her husband and kids could have visited (and Katy hadn't had strep), it would have been perfect, but as is, it was still a great Christmas.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Yes. With Rock Band. :)

23. What was your favorite TV program?
How much time do you have? Choosing one, I'd say Dexter.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Almost certainly, but I don't have a handy list or anything.

25. What was the best book you read?
Non-comics, since that's a list all its own, my favorite book of the year was probably the final Harry Potter.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Fratellis

27. What did you want and get?
XBox, Rock Band, a comic book store, good friends, good family, etc.

28. What did you want and not get?
A bazillion dollars, worldwide fame and a license to kill.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Knocked Up in theaters, Children of Men on DVD

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 36, and I cannot for the life of me remember what I did.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More money, less near-death and hospital bills as a result of Aaron's arrival. But really, it was a pretty satisfying year.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Um... t-shirt and shorts or t-shirt and jeans?

33. What kept you sane?
Suzanne and the kids. My best friend/store manager Dave. Videogames and TV. Murdering hobos with my bare hands. (Wait, scratch that last one.)

34. Which celebrities/public figures did you fancy the most?
There are whole lists for this kind of thing, but I'm gonna go with Tina Fey.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I've fallen into a sort of simmering, constant frustrated outrage over the Bush Administration, but I think I was stirred most by realizing that Barack Obama is a candidate I'm actually *excited* about, rather than just willing to settle for. I'm dying to see how tomorrow's Iowa primary plays out.

36. Who did you miss?
I'm always disappointed Don MacPherson can't make San Diego, as I haven't seen him for years.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Wow, I don't know. I always meet a ton of people in San Diego and at STAPLE!, and new customers turn into friends with regularity at the shop.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
I will always, always stress about things I can't control, even if everything winds up turning out OK.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Yeah, that's gonna be a little too emo/Myspace for me.

Weekly Comics to Come - January 4, 2007

Remember, comics are coming in on Friday this week... if you go into the store on Wednesday, they may point and laugh at you. And also, since I was too busy last week, my list of comics I got/read the last week of December is here as well.

TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest #3 (Another great issue of Marvel space adventure... I'd really like Abnett & Lanning to get an ongoing Annihilation style title, in addition to Nova)
Dynamo 5 #10 (One of my favorite new series of 2007)
Northlanders #2 (Solid first issue, and the second one builds nicely on that)
Overman #2 (Loved the first issue of this science-fiction book from Image, looking forward to seeing where they go next.)
Teen Titans Year One #1 (The art on this one, by Karl Kerschl, looks drop dead gorgeous. The covers and solicits seem to promise a fun, engaging series by writer Amy Wolfram. And it's out of continuity, so maybe it won't be as fucked over as many of DC's mainstream superhero books are right now.)

THE REST
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #10 (Joss Whedon written interlude that sheds light on the big bad of Season Eight)
End League #1 (High fantasy post-apocalyptic superheroics. Good high concept, intriguing art)
Essential Power Man And Iron Fist Vol 1 TP (Been waiting a while for this one... of course, I still haven't finished reading Essential Moon Knight Vol. 2, these Essentials are huge time sinks)
Fearless #3 (Nobody's talking about this weird little Image superhero book, which is a shame, because it's got solid writing, a neat hook and great art)
Thunderbolts #118 (Not as big a fan of the second story arc as I was the first, but there are still plenty of good moments.)

December 28

TOP FIVE
Captain America #33 (Great issue, one of the best in a while, interesting lead-up to the new Cap next issue)
House Of M Avengers #3 (This is in the running for my favorite miniseries of the year. It's that good.)
Proof #3 (Image's newest breakout book, with a great concept, writing and art)
Queen & Country Definitive Ed Vol 1 Tp (Love the new design, and 12 issues of Queen & Country for $20 is a steal)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #7 (Great second part to the powers lost story, with tons of Sentinels as a bonus)

THE REST
Brave And The Bold #9 (Kind of a weak issue, too many characters, and though it was crafted well enough, it didn't have the hooks for me that so many issues of this series have)
Daredevil #103 (It's good, but I'm still having trouble with Brubaker's uber-dark, kinda slow-moving, take on Daredevil... probably just not for me)
Fantastic Four Isla De La Muerte One Shot (Fun, weird FF special by Tom Beland and Juan Doe)
Giant Monster TP (Darkly funny giant monster story)
Invincible Presents Atom Eve #1 (Haven't had the chance to read it yet, but I love the work of these guys on other books, and I like Atom Eve)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #8 (Steampunk Iron Man = awesome)
Marvel Zombies 2 #3 (Still surprisingly fun... I'll almost certainly pick up the hardcover)
Midnight Sun TP (Beautifully illustrated little indy gem from Slave Labor)
Usagi Yojimbo #108 (Continues to be as good as always, loving the current story)
Wasteland Vol 2 TP (Haven't gotten a chance to read through it yet, but I dug the first trade and want to catch up)

Xbox 360

So I got what I really wanted for Christmas. My parents-in-law got me an XBox 360, and my parents got me Rock Band.

Yes, I do have the best parents and in-laws in the world.

So I finally plugged in Rock Band tonight, just to try out the solo guitar action and...

Oh.

My.

God.

This game is so good, I may never play Guitar Hero again. Downloadable songs, the ability to switch and play bass, drums or sing, plus multiplayer and online multiplayer with all of that? Not to mention I love the little tweaks to the Rock Band guitar, like the multi-mode whammy bar and the inset fret buttons, and the super-customizable avatars are awesome as well.

If anybody out there is on XBox Live, please friend me... I've put my gamertag up. I'm a pretty casual gamer, and I can't play first-person, or even a lot of third-person, shooters without getting ill, so I won't do the huge multiplayer HALO or Bioshock or Call of Duty... but I could definitely use some folks to play Rock Band online with, or people who will play with a total novice at Madden '08. I also swung by Gamestop and picked up their "Buy 2, get 1 free" used games to get Tomb Raider Legend, Marvel Ultimate Alliance (I already have it on the PS/2, but this one has Hawkeye and Moon Knight, two of my favorites) and Crackdown.

I can't wait for Burnout Paradise City. I've been digging the demo. And I'm going to buy the full versions of Catan and Carcassone at some point too.

Best of 2007 - Movies

I have gotten to the point where I see less than a dozen movies in the theater, and they're usually the big, dumb Hollywood flicks, while I wind up finding the smarter movies I really love on DVD about a year later. 2007 was no exception, and since my movie viewing was so sparse, rather than a top 10, I'm just giving the whole list:

On Netflix:
Children of Men - Intense, amazing performances, great in every way. My favorite film of 2007.
Pan's Labyrinth - Gorgeous, imaginative, the best Del Toro film I've ever seen and my other favorite movie of the year.
Casino Royale - When I watched this again on DVD, I gained a larger appreciation for it. It's still way too long and inconsistent in tone, but it's got a ton of excellent moments and Daniel Craig is great as Bond.
Fail Safe - Surprisingly engaging take on a classic play with a fantastic cast.
Deja Vu - Enjoyable action movie from Tony Scott, for those who dig his quick-cut, frenetic style. I happen to be one of those people.
Night Watch - Not entirely great, but imaginative, fresh and fun.
The Last King of Scotland - Great performance by Forest Whitaker in a somewhat bland movie.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Good, nowhere near as good as the book nor as good as the reviewers made it out to be.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Good, nowhere near as good as the book.
The Illusionist - Interesting, and a great performance (as always) by Ed Norton, but I didn't love it.
The Lookout - Boring. Didn't finish it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Boring. Didn't finish it.
Shortbus - How do you make what is essentially porn this boring?
Crank - Too over the top and dumb, couldn't quite enjoy this, and I say that as a fan of The Transporter and somebody who watched and enjoyed parts of Transporter 2.
Stranger than Fiction - Weird, likable, more or less forgettable.
Little Miss Sunshine - Overrated, occasionally funny but overwrought and melodramatic.
Out of the Past - Couldn't get into it. Came highly recommended by Ed Brubaker, but I'm just not an old movie guy.

In Theatres:
Knocked Up - Funny and sweet, the heart at the center of this one puts it just above...
Superbad - Which is funnier than Knocked Up, and has an equally great cast, but it's focus is on comedy over character.
Hot Fuzz - Hilarious, and as good or perhaps better than Shaun of the Dead. Although still not as great as Spaced.
Ocean's 13 - Fun, although I didn't think it was noticeably better or different from Ocean's 12, unlike most of the critics who lambasted 12 and loved 13. I liked both about equally, and neither one as well as Ocean's 11.
Ratatouille - Pixar delivers the goods as always, although it's weaker than their last few. Great short at the start, though, and still an excellent movie.
Bee Movie - Surprisingly fun, took my daughter to this one and we both had a good time.
Pirates 3 - Loud, pointless, occasionally fun.
Transformers - See above, but with transforming robots, too many pointless human characters and way too much Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf
Bourne Ultimatum - Well crafted, but the first person shaky cam stuff actually made me ill and I had to leave the theatre before it finished, which downgrades it in my mind
28 Weeks Later - I hated this, found it laughably bad, and don't understand how so many people gave it good marks.

Best of 2007 - Music

My Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2007
The Fratellis - Costello Music - I'm pretty sure this album was released in 2006, but I hadn't really heard of The Fratellis before this year, and now they're one of my favorite bands. I can't remember the last time I bought an album and loved every song on it. Certainly none of the other albums on this list can make that claim, even though there were some very good albums this year. Hoping we'll see more Fratellis in 2008.

Hot Hot Heat - Elevator - Another band I've heard of, but never sampled before 2007. Hot Hot Heat has the same sort of poppy up-tempo style that many of my favorites on this list have, and I dug quite a few songs off this album.

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare - Love the Arctic Monkeys, and although this wasn't as great as their last album, there are still a half-dozen really good songs, and not really a stinker in the mix.

Hot Fuzz - The Soundtrack - Nice weird mixture of music, from '60s standards to (you guessed it) a couple Fratellis tunes. First place I heard the band, actually. Also has a great song by The Eels.

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Austin based band that I really should have checked out earlier. There are a few songs I really like on here, but I'm even more impressed with Girls Can Tell, their older album that I picked up off eMusic. But this one was released this year, so it goes on the 2007 list.

Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace - Solid, although not spectacular. The Foo Fighters never fail to deliver at least good music, but this didn't have the killer hooks in me the way their last few albums have. A couple really good singles, though, and overall I dug the album.

Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather - I'm about 50-50 on this album, but the songs I like, I really like, and I find all of them listenable, even if most of them didn't wind up on regular rotation.

The Killers - Sam's Town - It's weird, I like The Killers when I hear them on other people's iPods, but it usually takes me a while to realize that before buying the album. That was the case with Sam's Town, which I bought a few months after release, at least.

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank - I liked this better than Modest Mouse's first album. The lead single they released was my favorite song on it, though.

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - This one took a few listens to decide I liked it, but then I wound up actually loving one of the songs on it so much it made my Top Favorite songs of 2007.

My Top 10 Favorite Songs of 2007
Flathead - The Fratellis - Close call, but it's my favorite track from the album - great video, too - Chelsea Dagger is a close second, and another great video


Theme From Andrex - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra (Picked up on it from the Ocean's 13 trailer)


Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys - One of my three favorite songs off Arctic Monkeys, I also really love "Do The Bad Thing" and "Balaclava"


Don't Make Me A Target - Spoon - My favorite song off the Spoon album, which became a favorite after I saw it used perfectly on "Chuck," and it's in close competition with "The Underdog"


Souljacker Part 1 - The Eels


The Well and the Lighthouse - Arcade Fire - Favorite song off this album


Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - iTunes freebie, and one of my favorite Springsteen tunes ever - But then, I'm not a huge Springsteen fan


New Routine - Fountains of Wayne - My favorite song off the new Fountains of Wayne, although "Someone to Love" is close... and the video embedded below, since I can't find New Routine on Youtube. Also, this video features Demetri Martin from The Daily Show, which is cool.


Dreaming of You - The Coral - From The Scrubs Volume 2 soundtrack - occasionally sappy, but they pick good music for these


Chick Habit - April March - Perfect ending to Tarantino's Death Proof - in the theatre, at least - I hear the DVD version is interminable, and I can believe that, because Grindhouse was perfect as one movie, but didn't seem like a good idea as two longer ones.

Best of 2007 - TV

I'm going to go ahead and start posting my Best of 2007 lists, even though the year isn't technically over yet. For TV, it all ended a week ago anyway. I'll also plan to cover music and movies (although given my DVD versus theater habits, that'll be more of a Best of 2006). Comics will of course be covered in podcast form on Comic Pants in early 2008.

My Top 10 Favorite TV Shows of 2007
30 Rock (NBC) - I might love this even more than Arrested Development. It's funny, it's smart, it has a great ensemble cast. One memorable scene from a recent episode is below, but it's worth checking out all of season one on DVD or any of the second season episodes on Amazon or Hulu (although I don't whole-heartedly endorse those at the moment, given the writer's strike. And that goes for any reference to legal downloads made in this post.)


Dexter (SHO) - Claiming the title of favorite drama over longtime champion The Shield, Dexter had the benefit of a stunning first season and an even more impressive second season follow-up. Rarely misses a beat, has a great cast and great writers. Takes a bizarre premise that sounds totally unappealing at first and makes it totally addicting viewing. Worth having Showtime for. The video below is a funny official Showtime music video for the show, it spoils major parts of season one but doesn't spoil anything from season two.


The Shield (F/X) - Continually putting the characters into situations where you wonder what's going to happen next, how they're going to escape and if they even deserve to. There's only one season left, and it sure looks like they'll go out on a high note.


The Office (NBC) - To me, the show just keeps getting funnier, and I loved all the new characters in season three and the evolution of relationships in season four. There were a ton of laugh out loud episodes in both.


It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (F/X) - Actually managed to go even further into outrageous comedy territory in their latest season, building up steam with four last episodes for the season that are among the funniest they've ever done. Look up some clips on Youtube or Hulu, paying particular attention to "The Gang Gets Whacked" or "Bums: Making a Mess All Over The City" or "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off."


Lost (ABC) - I never quite had the disconnect that so many did from season three, but I won't deny that were some weaker episodes in there. However, I think it's better than most people remember, and the awesomely cool season finale (not to mention an announced ending) have me excited about a strong conclusion. Just hope the AMPTP's negotiating tactics and resulting long strike don't mess up the plan too badly.


Burn Notice (USA) - Light fun, good cast, and a developing larger story made this at first a mildly entertaining diversion, building up to a must-watch show by the end.


Pushing Daisies (ABC) - The best of the new Fall season shows, this one has a Tim Burton vibe (think Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and especially Big Fish), fantastic casting, two gorgeous female leads, the best narrator ever and lots of witty, imaginative comedy and dramatic character hooks as well. Bryan Fuller (of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls) finally gets the success he's always deserved, and he gets to keep the quirk.


Chuck (NBC) - This one grew on me as the season went on, until eventually I was going into "Nooo! Not the strike!" mode when the episodes ran out. The terrific supporting cast (Adam Baldwin as Agent Casey in particular, although I also love Ellie and Captain Awesome, and Morgan has really grown on me) is enough reason to watch it, but the Chuck/Sarah relationship turns out to be really good, and I love the combination of goofy comedy with spy action and a touch of soap opera relationships. Also, the music choices on this show are excellent.


Battlestar Galactica (SCIFI) - The first four episodes, focusing on a guerrilla resistance against the Cylons, were my favorite episodes of the series. Then there was a drought of about fourteen episodes that rarely rated above mediocre, and then there was a terrific two-part finale. Then there was Razor, the movie about the Pegasus, which I loved. So although there were a lot of episodes I didn't like, the eight (counting Razor as two) I did I really liked, and that brings the whole thing up to the bottom spot on my top 10.


Shows that didn't make the cut (but almost did) were Heroes (for the first season episodes that aired in 2007, but the awful season two weighed too heavily aginst them), How I Met Your Mother (still funny, but it lost something in the transition between season two and three), Weeds (strong season, but not quite strong enough to get past the shows above) and Friday Night Lights (awesome first season, very disappointing second season).

Girls With Slingshots in Dead Tree Edition!

This is so cool. I discovered GWS when Danielle came to the first ever STAPLE!, and now, three years later, I'll be able to buy a copy when she's at the fourth one in March!

If you're not in Austin, or you just don't want to wait, or you want to make sure I curse myself for not ordering one instead of waiting to buy one from Danielle in person in March, go and look here. GWS is a very funny, very well-drawn comic.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 19, 2007

TOP FIVE
Action Philosophers Vol 3 Giant Sized Thing TP (The finale of Van Lente & Dunlavey's great indie comic series... good news is that their next one, Comic Book Comics, looks just as good)
Escapists HC (Finally! This was supposed to ship two weeks ago, but we're just getting it at my shop. One of my favorite stories from 2006)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #6 (Corrected version, now readable in order, is just as good as I remember when I had to read in weird order with the misprints a couple weeks back)
Incredible Hulk #112 (Basically a backdoor series for Hercules and Amadeus Cho, and it is awesome. Best issue of the series since #110, which is my runner-up for best single issue of the year)
The Order #6 (Another strong issue for The Order)

THE REST
Angel After The Fall #2 (First issue was good, and I'm very curious to see where they go from here)
Batman And The Outsiders #3 (Solid entertaining superteam book with really nice art)
Birds of Prey #113 (Sean McKeever takes over, and I'll check back in to see if I have any interest)
Countdown Ray Palmer Superwoman Batwoman #1 (I have zero interest in the Countdown aspect, but I loved the Superwoman Batwoman Elseworlds from way back... unfortunately, a lot of that was down to Matt Haley's artwork, and Randy Green isn't in the same league. Palmiotti & Gray are good storytellers, though... I'll probably check this out, but expect to be disappointed.)
Grendel Behold The Devil #2 (First issue was great, looking forward to more)
Immortal Iron Fist #11 (Very strong Iron Fist issue, and a Heroes for Hire reunion of sorts)
Justice League Of America #16 (Last issue won me back a bit, although I'm still not loving this as much as I thought I would)
Long Count #1 (New from Archaia, sci-fi take on the Mayan end of the world myths, I'm intrigued)
Mundens Bar Vol 1 TP (Collection of weird short stories from Grimjack backups)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 12 (This has been getting really good of late)
Neozoic #2 (Beautiful art on this alternate world humans vs. dinosaurs book from Red 5, and the story was solid as well)
Other Side Of The Mirror Vol 1 (Jo Chen's manga! I'm a huge fan of her art, and even though the genre here isn't my favorite, I have to check it out)
Robotika For A Few Rubles More #1 (Really enjoyed the first one, and this follow-up looks very good as well)
Special Forces #2 (Weird, but kind of compelling, and Baker's vision and style are different from anyone else in comics)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #4 (Almost nonsensical, but in a good way... and beautiful to look at)
Walking Dead Vol 3 HC (I'm on and off this book, but I'm on enough to pick up these hardcovers)
What If Civil War (Writers I like take on a concept I hate... I'm interested in checking it out)
World War Hulk Warbound #1 (First issue of this one is a good read, although I'm not sure where it's going... which is a good thing, I suppose)

J.K. Rowling's Newest Book

In case you haven't heard, J.K. Rowling has released a new book, a companion of sorts to Harry Potter. It's called "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" and it is a real-life version of the book seen in the last Harry Potter book. It is also handwritten, done up in a style with leather and semi-precious stones and a locking clasp, and, oh yeah, there are only seven of them in existence.

Six of them were given to those that Rowling calls "those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years." The last was auctioned off for almost 2 million pounds (around 4 million dollars) and purchased through a proxy by Amazon.com, who are making reviews and pictures available to the public.

In some respects, it seems like a really cruel trick to play on us Potter fans, presenting a wholly new book that is clearly very good (at least if the words of the Amazon.com reviewer are to be believed, and the description of the two tales up as of this writing certainly sound pretty good) and then saying "Oops, sorry, you can't have it."

However, she's raised almost four million dollars for a children's charity in Europe. And Amazon, who purchased the book, have found a way to share it with the public. For free. Hard to get too upset about that. It's a remarkably cool use of the fame and well-earned critical acclaim that Rowling has earned, and just goes to show that in addition to creating one of the most enduring new fantasy series, she just seems like a really smart, really nice lady.

I'm holding out hope that at some point in the future, a mass-produced version of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" will be published. I have a hard time imagining that it won't. But even if it isn't, this is just a really cool story.

A List of Pixar Inside Jokes

This is just a really cool list of various Pixar inside jokes in their movies, with screen captures. I thought I'd know most of them, but I probably only knew a couple.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 12, 2007

TOP FIVE
Bprd Killing Ground #5 (Latest Mignola/Arcudi/Davis treat comes to an end)
Fables #68 (Loving this new story)
Nova #9 (Best two-parter of the series thus far concludes here, and I want a communist space dog miniseries)
Nova Vol 1 Annihilation Conquest TP (Might just be my favorite new series of 2007)
Wormwood One Shot (Finally, new Wormwood... one thing, though... this book has been gone for months while Templesmith worked on it, and they just *had* to put it out on the one week that the Chronicles of Wormwood from Avatar came out too?)

THE REST
Abyss #2 (Second issue of the fun supervillain spoof)
Astounding Wolf-Man #4 (This book really needed to be monthly for a while to build momentum... I'm in a very not caring place about it right now)
Criminal Vol 2 Lawless TP (Wasn't wild about the ending, but this was a strong arc, I'm curious to read it all at once)
Darkness #1 (Phil Hester on writing, and I'm interested to see what he does)
DMZ #26 (Burchielli's back, and Wood's one-shot story focuses on Kelly, a character I quite like)
Elephantmen War Toys #1 (The story of the war, at last, as Elephantmen returns)
Engineer #1 (Guy fights interdimensional trouble with his cosmic pipe organ... Archaia Studios Press)
Fantastic Four #552 (Dwayne McDuffie appears to be going out with a bang, on this cool little future Doom story)
Hybrid Bastards #1 (Beautifully painted, weird new series from Archaia Studios Press)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #6 (Fun to see Namor and Hulk square off, unfortunate that Mario Gully's art is kinda ugly)
Misericordia #1 (Another new Archaia book with an unusual, intriguing art style)
New Warriors #6 (Lame reveal of Thrash's identity sort of kills my formerly high interest in the book)
Potters Field #3 (Waid's pulpy noir mini at Boom! wraps, and I'm glad there's more coming in 2008)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #4 (I just don't like the modern status quo, which is hurting the book, but it's still a solid read)
Walking Dead #45 (Hated #43, warmed up a little bit to #44, hope this is good)

And on the lighter side of the news...

Well, lighter if you consider "Corporate America making another naked attempt at squashing workers by applying their giant financial advantage to evil purposes" lighter. Or, in other words, the writer's strike.

But the writers do have a spoof page up for the AMPTP, or NAMBLA (this joke trademark Jon Stewart and the Daily Show), and it's hilarious. Check it out.

Creationist fucktards cost actual intelligent educator their job

This makes me furious, especially given that it's happened here in Austin, Texas, where I live.

Furious enough to make an ill-considered rant about religion. To my friends who read this who are religious, in some cases to the extent of being an actual minister, know that I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the people who *claim* to be Christian, but clearly have no idea what that actually means.

I've tried to be very tolerant of those who have a strong faith. I respect it, even if I don't share it. In return, I expect that my lack of religious belief be given the same respect. Which just ain't happening in America, and it's only getting worse since Bush's "God put me here" Presidency.

I'm tired of the leeway that some religious crazies get for their faulty science. I find it maddening that intelligent design can seriously be included in any curriculum, rather than laughed out of the building. And it annoys me that an atheist wouldn't have a shot in hell of the Presidency, that not believing in an invisible all-powerful man in the clouds somehow marks *me* as the crazy one.

If an atheist got up and gave a speech about "Anyone who has never prayed to a nonexistent God is a friend of mine," they'd be tarred, feathered and lit on fire before being run out of town. But Mitt Romney, G.O.P. third in line for the 2008 Republican nomination, gave a speech in which he said "Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me."

For any atheist or agnostic, it's hard not to take that as an implicit "And if you don't believe in God, you're not my friend, and may be my enemy."

If an atheist said "There are those who believe that God watches over us all -- they are wrong" he might not make it down off the podium before being beaten to within an inch of his life by angry religious folks in the audience.

Yet Romney offers up "It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong."

Really? Well, I've managed to live 35 years as a pretty decent human being without religion to guide me. I've had parents, peers and good examples in the community to teach me right from wrong, I didn't need a set of arbitrary rules from a church that often didn't hold its faithful or even its priests to the same codes.

If an atheist said, "Freedom requires free expression and free thought, just as free expression and free thought flourish in a free society. Freedom opens the windows of the mind so a man can question the most profound beliefs of society, including the existence of God. Freedom and free thought endure together, or perish alone." Well, that he'd probably get away with, but there's no way in hell he'd be elected President. Too many folks equate religion with turning off the brain and just accepting what the church tells you.

Yet Romney offers up: "Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone,"

I call bullshit. Religion has nothing to do with freedom. All too often, organized religion has been used to squash freedom, to stifle free expression and to limit free thought. I'm glad that we live in a society where people are free to believe what they wish, without being persecuted. I just wish there wasn't what seems like a majority belief that if you're an atheist, you're following that freedom to foolish ends.

And I pity the poor teacher who decides to try and sling that creationism/intelligent design bullshit at Katy and Aaron at school. Because they're going to get the extended dance remix of this post, in person. Every day until they stop trying to poison my kid's mind.

Blog Update for November 2007

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.

It's another huge month for comics, and my early cut of "best of the month" ran well over thirty. Cutting it down, I lost promising new first issues of Midknight (Red 5), Batman and the Outsiders (DC), Angel (IDW), Fearless and Hawaiian Dick (Image). Also not quite making the cut were a half-dozen from Marvel (Marvel Adventures Iron Man #7, Criminal #10, Marvel Zombies 2 #2, Daredevil #102, Incredible Hulk #111 and Immortal Iron Fist #10), two from DC (Brave And The Bold #8 and Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #3) and four from other publishers (Hack Slash Series #6, Usagi Yojimbo #107, Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #3 and Invincible #46). As for what did make the cut? 3 DC (the out-of-continuity, consistently late All Star Superman and two Vertigo books, one of which is gone in the new year, not exactly a strong DC showing), a whopping 10 (half the list!) from Marvel (with Abnett & Lanning and Christos Gage both represented on the list with two different books), 1 from Image, 1 from Red 5, 1 from Oni and 4 from Dark Horse, making it the second biggest publisher on my list. Plus two of the books that almost made the cut were Dark Horse, putting them even with DC even if I expanded to a top 30 and included Vertigo in DC's count. Marvel also has my attention, but mostly for books that are on their fringe, with only Captain America in the top 20 sellers.

Didn't do a lot of reading this month, outside of comics issues. Only read a half-dozen graphic novels or so, didn't start on any of the books that I meant to read. But it was a busy month at work and there were a few trips to Dallas for family visits and Wizard World Texas, plus I was getting ready to start up the D&D game again in December, which meant a lot of prep work.

November was also the last real month of new television for the year, and indeed probably for longer. My guess, given the networks' insulting negotiation tactics, is that the strike is going to go on for a while. Which is OK, although I'll probably start missing shows in a couple months. At any rate, there are a few great series, and a couple that have moved from intriguing to solidly good. But first, the disappointments. I killed off Reaper for good because it was getting repetitive and also because I saw what the CW passed on with the Veronica Mars season four pilot, and I think my interests and the interests of whoever made that decision are nowhere near in line. Heroes regained some strength, but then turned in a two-part finale that may have been the worst episodes the series has ever had. I'm not sure I'll be back for season three. Friday Night Lights continues to have moments of greatness and moments of "what the hell?!" And Scrubs... it bums me out that Scrubs was weak last season and weaker this one, and that it's not going to go out as strongly as it could have if they'd ended a couple seasons ago. Still watching, but not enjoying it as much as the rest of the comedy block.

Then there's the good. The Office went dark early thanks to the strike, but before it did, they turned in three pretty strong episodes. 30 Rock was even better, with three new episodes, two of which could be series favorites for me. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia had a great third season, closing out with some hilarious episodes, with the two-part "Gang Gets Whacked," the '70s tinged "Bums" episode and "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off" providing some of the most over-the-top and hilarious moments the show has ever seen. I sincerely hope we see more Rickety Cricket in season four, as every moment with him was gold. Pushing Daisies doesn't quite have its hooks in me the way Fuller's Dead Like Me did, but I love the entire cast and it's definitely my favorite new show of the season. My second favorite, as it turns out, is Chuck, which is like this weirdly perfect blend of McG's Charlie's Angels (in terms of whimsy and action), Alias (in terms of action/soap opera/spy stuff blending) and a few other elements. The music choices and dialogue/characters are strong, and though I never watched it, I'm going to guess those are the hallmarks of The O.C.'s Josh Schwartz.I was also really, really happy with Razor, the Battlestar Galactica movie, which has me wanting to go back and re-watch seasons 1-3 of Galactica. Then there's my favorite show on the air, Dexter, which is having a second season as good or maybe even better than its first. As long as Showtime has Dexter, I will have Showtime. Weeds, too, although Weeds returning next year is kind of bittersweet, as the last few episodes in November really provided a great finale for the series, and I'm wary of them going on too long. And the "good, but not great" sitcoms of How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl, both of which have occasional uproariously funny moments (the "writing fantasy" episode of Earl was great, for example) but also occasionally fall into sitcom cliche, continued to be good, occasionally great. Mother was fairly weak in November, so it was number 11 on the top 10 and didn't quite make the cut.

A few new additions to the blogroll this month, mostly a result of the strike. I've added both Deadline Hollywood Daily and United Hollywood, and both have become favorites of mine for their strike coverage. Also added the writer blogs of Ronald D. Moore and Lisa Klink. In non-strike related additions, there was the Flickr blog (semi-daily new pictures), Obama Press (the official newsblog of Barack Obama's campaign), rarely updated blogs from Jenna Fischer (Pam from The Office) and Stan Sakai (creator of Usagi Yojimbo), a new webcomic, Real Life Comics, found from a link on Shortpacked! and the Wizards of the Coast RSS feed.

Weekly Comics to Come - December 5, 2007

TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest #2 (Great second issue, nice twists and turns and fantastic art)
Dynamo 5 #9 (Another issue of what may be my favorite new superhero book of 2007)
House Of M Avengers #2 (Sweet Christmas, I love this book. '70s superheroes at their finest... give Gage and Perkins an ongoing book, already, Marvel!)
Resurrection #1 (Terrific new post-alien apocalypse book that recalls The Walking Dead in all the right ways)
The Order #5 (Another strong issue, another contender for best new superhero book of 2007)

THE REST
Atomic Robo #3 (The move to the modern-day makes me love the book even more, Red 5 is impressing)
Avengers Initiative Annual #1 (The last issue won me back over to the book for a while)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #9 (Vaughan's Faith arc concludes, I believe... best Buffy comic story so far)
Fearless #2 (Promising first issue, now to see if it can deliver the goods once the setup is done)
Infinite Horizon #1 (Love Phil Noto's art, I'll give this one a look)
Invincible #47 (This weird "no books for months and then two in two weeks" shipping is annoying, but it's still a great book)
Justice League Of America #15 (Almost off McDuffie's JLA, but I can't quite bring myself to quit it yet)
Lobster Johnson Iron Prometheus #4 (Liking this one, although not as much as Hellboy or BPRD)
Marvel Adventures Hulk Vol 1 Tp (Fun stories, nice art, great use of Madrox)
Northlanders #1 (Brian Wood's promising new viking Vertigo saga)
Overman #1 (New sci-fi series from Image, first issue is very good)
Owly Vol 4 Dont Be Afraid TP (New Owly! Yay!)
Wet Moon Vol 3 Gn (New gothy art from Ross Campbell! Double yay!)
World War Hulk Aftersmash (Weird, but interesting, epilogue to World War Hulk)

A Little More On The Strike

I haven't been posting as many links to the strike news as of late, but I have still been following it with a sort of horrified interest. Horrified at how greedy the AMPTP and the studios behind them are being, that is.

So this, from United Hollywood, an open letter to the AMPTP's PR Person of the Hour, just about made me die laughing.

"In the very likely event that you get fired before you finish reading this, I hope you'll be so kind as to mark your place so that your successors can pick up reading where you leave off. Thanks."

Awesome.

The strike is going to take a while, I think, but I fully believe the AMPTP will cave. Because they are losing *huge* right now, in terms of PR and stock prices, which is hitting them where they hurt.

Weekly Comics to Come - November 29, 2007

TOP FIVE
Age Of Bronze Vol 3 Betrayal HC (The latest in Shanower's Greek war epic)
American Virgin #21 (The final arc of American Virgin continues)
Marvel Zombies 2 #2 (Kirkman and Phillips continue to impress)
Proof #2 (Promising new series from Image, imagine X-Files if Mulder were a bigfoot)
X-Men First Class Vol 2 #6 (Another great issue, this one features danger from space, a classic foe and even better, a long form story with Parker and Colleen Coover doing a story of Scarlet Witch and Jean Grey)

THE REST
Batman And The Outsiders #2 (First issue was surprisingly fun, last page was worrying, but I'm curious to see where it goes from here)
Dan Dare #1 (Garth Ennis takes on a classic Brit hero in the Flash Gordon mold)
Daredevil #102 (Still digging Brubaker's take, but the whole "Milla's a murderer" thing is bugging me)
Dock Walloper #1 (New crime comic from Virgin)
Fear Agent Hatchet Job #1 (New miniseries - really enjoyed the last one)
Hack Slash Series #6 (I'm behind on Hack Slash, need to get caught up)
Jack Of Fables #17 (Also need to get caught up on this one, since I just read the trade)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #7 (Dr. Doom... stealth armor... hells yeah)
Marvel Atlas #1 (Locales of the Marvel Universe, sounds like fun)
Popgun Vol 1 Gn (Giant anthology from Image with an impressive creator list)
Previews #27.12 (Down the Line is in the works)
Transformers Devastation #3 (Loved the second issue)
Usagi Yojimbo #107 (Always great stories of the rabbit ronin)

Jeff Parker = Genius

At this point, I have no particular interest in writing comics, beyond the "If someone gave me a comic I'd write it," but I still find the process stuff interesting. And Jeff Parker, talking about working with artists but throwing in a few general writer tips as well, writes a must-read column on writing in this blog entry.

No wonder X-Men First Class, Agents of Atlas, Marvel Adventures Avengers, etc. are all so damn good. Also, X-Men First Class #9? From the new solicit?

"No longer with Magneto's Brotherhood, Wanda Maximoff is at a crossroads. Should she become a super hero like her friend Marvel Girl? Or will the Black Widow succeed in her goal of Scarlet Witch - Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

Let me repeat that: Scarlet Witch - Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Jeff Parker = genius

Weekly Comics to Come - November 21, 2007

TOP FIVE
American Virgin Vol 3 Wet TP (Sad to see it go, especially since each volume was better than the last, and this one's no exception)
Goon Chinatown Hc (The Goon's origin! Full color OGN by Eric Powell! Aw hells yeah!)
Grendel Behold The Devil #1 (New Matt Wagner Hunter Rose stories! Wooo!)
Hawaiian Dick #1 (New Hawaiian Dick stories! Scott Chantler Art! Maybe monthly this time! Double woo!)
Iron Man Director Of Shield Annual #1 (Dear Marvel: Please put Christos Gage on Iron Man monthly and have him write stories like this. Sincerely, Randy. This is the best Iron Man story I've read in quite some time, and it's also one of the more fun SHIELD stories I've read in a while... *and* it makes great use of Marvel's "Hong Kong", Madripoor, and some of the characters created by Claremont there)

THE REST
Angel After The Fall #1 (Good, promising stuff... read my review)
Brave And The Bold #8 (Flash and Doom Patrol, looks like fun)
Captain America #32 (Another shocker from Brubaker and Epting, and I continue to really enjoy this book)
Incredible Hulk #111 (Interesting new status quo from Pak & Van Lente)
Invincible #46 (Digging this one as well, as it leads up to something big with #50)
Love And Capes #6 (The best full-color romance book on the stands)
Midknight #1 (New from promising newcomers Red 5 Comics)
Shadowpact #19 (Need to check back in, with Matt Sturges taking over solo writing chores a couple months back... and then I need to catch up on the trades)
She-Hulk 2 #23 (Second issue isn't as good as the first of Peter David's run, but it's still solid fun)
Thunderbolts Breaking Point (Not as good as Thunderbolts, not as godawful as the last Thunderbolts one-shot by a different creative team)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #3 (Strange, beautifully illustrated, good comics)
Walking Dead #44 (#43 almost lost me... I'll have to see if this can win me back, but the dire portents of the future lead me to think Kirkman's going to once again go too far in a direction I'm not interested in)

Thanksgiving

It was a bit of a rough day, once we left Wizard World Texas. Hit some car trouble, and I've had various financial worries because... well, mostly because I worry a lot, not because we're in any real trouble.

And then I read my wife's blog and see her state with perfect clarity exactly how I feel pretty much every day. I mean, I own a comic book shop, which I run with the help of a great group of employees and friends. And then there's this:



So yeah. Pretty thankful this 2007.

The Daily Show - Still Funny, Even on Strike

I Am Pro Robot-Overlord

John Rogers and Tyrone make a strong case for backing a robot overlord takeover. I see no choice but to publicly declare my early support on the internet, which is of course like beaming it directly into the proto-robot overlord brains.

Writer's Strike - Ask A Ninja

The Strike Continues...

It's probably an indication of what an entertainment junkie I am (ok, and an RSS junkie) that I'm reading *tons* of stuff about the writers' strike right now. In fact, sad as it may seem, I am probably greatly informed about the writers' strike, the world of comic books, the developments in the upcoming 2008 election and maybe a bit about videogames and very little else. We're not at war with Iran yet, are we? Because I might have missed that.

Kidding! Mostly. I really am paying a lot of attention to this.

And I've realized that I know people affected by this. I mean, not really close friends, although I do have close friends who are writers, but they're generally working in videogames or smaller press comics. I have plenty of friendly acquaintances, though, who are being affected by the strike. It struck me today that the writers' strike for a lot of the gofers and assistants and the others who really make the shows run day-to-day are probably hurting now, and will be more. It would be kind of like if comics' writers struck... the companies and the big name writers could hold out for a while, but I'd be in a panic-spiral without new product to sell to customers, and the guys doing one book a month would be having to take jobs waiting tables.

So while I have great admiration for the writer/producers for turning their back on huge salaries and great deals they've worked their whole lives to get, I think I have even more respect for folks who lost their first big break in a writers' room, or who had to give up a new internship, or did any of the other thousands of jobs that are necessary for TV to work, in order to support the writers.

And that, ultimately, is why the studios are going to lose, and lose huge, here. The reruns are coming sooner than expected (next week is the last new Office, which makes me very sad, and it won't be the first show to get truncated that way), and while it's going to hurt the viewers, most of us who aren't misinformed or selfish about our entertainment realize that it's the least bit of sacrifice we can offer to support the future of writers. And it's clear that, in general, folks have lined up behind the WGA on this. Any hopes of splitting them from the other guilds is weakening by the day. And it makes me glad when I see something like this on United Hollywood, showing that the actors (and SAG) are supporting the WGA.

Weekly Comics to Come - November 14, 2007

TOP FIVE
Avengers Initiative #7 (In a well-run Marvel Universe, this issue would have *major* continuity implications and be the best issue of The Initiative so far. In the current Marvel Universe? Probably will mostly be ignored by Bendis, JMS and the others *causing* the continuity/character problems and won't fix the problems it should fix, but it's still a very good issue that Spider-Man fans should check out - Edited to add, based on the comments, that this *will* be in continuity, which means it's must-reading for the week, especially if you're a Spidey fan, especially if you're a Spidey fan with a fondness for... well, that would be telling. But trust me.)
Fables #67 (Continuing one of the best stories the book has had)
Nova #8 (Maybe my favorite issue yet, a dash of Fraction-esque weirdness and fun with the same solid superhero adventure)
Scott Pilgrim Vol 4 GN (Awesome. You can read my review HERE)
World War Hulk #5 (I'm really looking forward to the end of this one... surprised by how much Pak and Romita Jr. have gotten me involved in the big Marvel crossover)

THE REST
All Star Superman #9 (Morrison's obsession with Bizarro is growing tiresome, but as long as it's him and Quitely, I'll be reading)
Atheist #4 (Finally! It's been a long wait, but I'm guessing it'll be worth the wait)
Atomic Robo #2 (First issue was a ton of fun, looking forward to more)
Batman And The Outsiders #1 (Had little interest in the original creative team, due largely to the art, but Chuck Dixon and a stronger artist? I'll check it out)
Booster Gold #4 (Kind of meh on this, but I'm a Booster Gold fan enough to keep reading, or at least skim-reading)
BPRD Killing Ground #4 (As always, the BPRD remains one of my favorite monthly reads)
Brit #3 (Anarchic superhero fun)
Courtney Crumrin And The Fire Thiefs Tale (Yay, more Courtney Crumrin!)
DMZ #25 (Another one-shot story, although I've never been a huge fan of guest artist Danijel Zezelj)
Ex Machina Vol 6 Power Down TP (The first trade I haven't read in single issues already, looking forward to catching up)
House Of M Avengers #1 (If House of M had been as good as this, I would have read the whole series, instead of one issue and assorted panels from the rest)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Black Dossier HC (After the long delays, I don't know if it can possibly live up to the anticipation)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #5 (Dr. Strange guest-stars! This issue is a blast)
Official Handbook Of The Invincible Universe TP (Dug the hell out of this, but I'm hoping it'll be in the Invincible hardcovers)
Queen & Country Vol 8 Operation Red Panda TP (The final Queen & Country trade)
Salvation Run #1 (Villains face off, ala Secret Wars... could be fun)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #3 (Fun, not as good as the original stuff, but fun)
Wonder Woman #14 (Gail Simone tries to rescue the badly damaged DC character)
World Of Warcraft #1 (Curious about this... I'm not a huge fan of Simonson's writing or the art I've seen, and my WoW love is severely diminished, but I still want to check it out)

The Office Writers on the Strike

Heroes This Week

Best episode yet. Which at this point is damning with faint praise. But it does seem like they might finally be on the right track, they've moved most of the characters into more interesting places and the scope of the dual threats (which are no doubt related somehow) is pretty good.

Another week with no Maya/Alejandro, yay!

Another week with no Veronica Mars with Lightning Action, boo!

Hiro finally back from Japan, yay!

Suresh again has boomerang plot-driven characterization, boo!

Terrific scenes of Peter in the future and the amnesia story is finally dead! Yay!

Still don't give a crap about West, and I'm increasingly fed up with Claire. Boo!

Basically, it does seem like they could have gotten to this same place in, say, two or three episodes instead of six. Cut out West and the Black Oil twins and you've shaved at least one episode entirely, cut down the Hiro/Kensei arc to two episodes and you've saved another. And that's without eliminating any of the other pointless stuff, like amnesiac Irish Peter for four episodes. And all of this stretching out was clearly to keep us guessing, so that when the shock reveals of this episode hit, we'd all go "Wow, they've really been planning it."

Except that the reveals were so painfully predictable that we all knew they were coming from much earlier on. Adam's true identity? Guessed the second Kensei's powers were revealed, which incidentally should have been a first episode reveal. Hiro is Kensei? Actual guess from the first episode we met the "real" Kensei. And all this stuff with the Company is so much more interesting than almost anything from the first three episodes... shame they didn't lead with that.

At any rate, with Tim Kring and the rest of the writers on the strike lines, it's probably irrelevant that the show has made a minor comeback. And even though it is a comeback, I'm still uncertain about whether the show can be all that good with four episodes or so of pointless filler in its backstory and West, Maya and Alejandro still lurking in the wings, waiting to suck the life out of the show at any minute. But this was a better episode, and I felt less like I had wasted an hour of my life in watching it.

Of course, I watched it on Tuesday, and watched Chuck on Monday. Chuck is actually getting better with each episode after starting fairly strong, which puts it way out ahead of Heroes. And indeed, ahead of most of the Fall season, except for Pushing Daisies, which is terrific.

Again, though, with the strike, I think getting attached to any of the new shows this season is probably foolish. We're no doubt going to lose a few that might have stuck around in a different situation.

Wow, Are The Studios Screwed

Really, the best thing they could have hoped for in their greedy attempt to keep the writers from benefiting financially from their work was that the actors, teamsters or writer/producers would have split from the WGA.

That ain't happening. By all accounts, the teamsters are supportive, and if you read this article from Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, you'll see that the writer/producers and several actors are walking the picket line.

This includes the folks running some of my favorite shows, like Shawn Ryan, Ronald Moore, Tina Fey, Greg Daniels, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. It's always nice to see when creative folks you admire for their creative output turn out to have integrity as well.

This may not be a short strike. The corporations seem pretty dug in. But in the end, I have to believe it's going to work in the writers' favor, because it's going to become quickly apparent which side needs the other more... and it's not the creative people who need the corporations.

Must Reading On The Writers' Strike

Brian Vaughan had a great piece up that was reprinted at the end of this CBR piece. The man walked away from a staff writer/producer job on Lost. A dream job. On principle, on supporting his fellow writers. That is what the strike is about.

But John Rogers really gets to the heart of it, and in a way that is a hilariously funny read. His corporation = tiger metaphor is one that I find heart-breakingly true and side-splittingly funny.

It's a painful, transitional time as entertainment, hell, our entire culture, goes fully from analog to digital. This is probably just one of the many important baby steps that will be taken in transforming the culture.

I said in a previous post that as an entertainment consumer, I don't have any particular emotional investment in this strike. But as someone who follows pop culture, as someone who knows and likes creative people, I am absolutely 100% behind the writers on this one.

From Uncle STAPLE!

STAPLE! Registration has begun!

Hey everybody!

STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo is back for its
fourth annual show! Come out Saturday March 1st, 2008
to a new location – the Monarch Event Center next to
Highland Mall – www.monarcheventcenter.com. This
exciting new venue occupies the site of the former
Lincoln Village Theater in the Lincoln Village
shopping center in north central Austin. It’s been
completely remodeled and refurbished into a lovely new
spot just perfect for a bigger and better STAPLE!
www.staple-austin.org

We are very pleased to announce a very special guest
for STAPLE! 2008 - BRIAN WOOD! Author of Channel Zero,
Couriers, DMZ, Demo, Local, Supermarket, and the
forthcoming Northlanders (available December 5th),
Brian has made his mark as an influential and eclectic
pioneer of independent comics creation. We are very
honored and excited to have him appear at STAPLE! For
more on Brian go to www.brianwood.com

And if you’d like to start making your own mark, you
can be an exhibitor at STAPLE! Exhibitor registration
is now open and tables are available at $65 for an
eight footer and $35 for a half – cheap! They always
sell out fast so to get yours now go to
www.staple-austin.org/register

STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo is the Southwest’s
only convention for independently produced comics,
zines, graphic arts and animation. The fourth annual
Expo is Saturday, March 1st, 2008, 11am-7pm at the
Monarch Event Center in Austin, Texas. Admission is
STILL only $5 at the door! For more info go to
www.staple-austin.org

Thanks! Hope to see you there!

Weekly Comics to Come - November 7, 2007

TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest #1 (Great start to the new cosmic crossover, roundtable review is up at Comic Pants)
Criminal #10 (End of the second story arc, which I've actually been enjoying more than the first one)
Dan Breretons Nocturnals Vol 1 HC (Finally! Nocturnals gets swanky oversized hardcover treatment.. and yep, I'm buying the $10 more expensive deluxe version)
Grendel Art Of Matt Wagners Grendel HC (New deluxe Dark Horse art book... yay!)
The Order #4 (Fantastic issue, possibly the best one since #1)

THE REST
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #4 (A really good ending to what is probably my favorite of the Conquest miniseries)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #8 (Vaughan's arc has been a lot of fun thus far)
Darkness First Look (Hate the Darkness, but really enjoy Phil Hester's writing... so I'll give this a read)
Fantastic Four #551 (Looks like the wrap-up to McDuffie's run, and it starts off very strong)
Fearless #1 (Intriguing new superhero book from Image)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #6 (Wrapping up the first Fegredo drawn Hellboy, and it's been my favorite Hellboy series in years)
Immortal Iron Fist #10 (Wandering into "I'd rather read this in trade" territory, but still very good)
Lobster Johnson The Iron Prometheus #3 (Not feeling it as much as the other BPRD stuff, but great art, good pulp story)
Lower Regions GN (Alex Robinson's loving parody of D&D)
Y The Last Man #59 (The penultimate issue, and after last issue, I'm more than a little worried about where it's going)

My Thoughts on The Strike

In general? I'm with the writers. What they want is completely fair, and the studios are being ridiculously stupid in not wanting to share the money with the people who are largely responsible for them making it. Without studios, there will still be a lot of great TV and movies (witness the Internet, short films, etc.). Without writers? The studios produce reality TV and game shows.

So yeah, advantage: Writers. Like, F-15s vs. cavemen type advantage.

But the problem, and a lot of the writers know it even though they have been pushed into an unavoidable corner, is that nobody wins in this situation. The traditional TV/movie models have been slipping for a while, and the strike could cost a lot of the audience. With any luck, the writers will find new ways to make money in newer delivery systems and the studios will find that they just fucked themselves out of cash and new media importance, kind of the way the RIAA is slowly pushing itself into obsolescence. But in the real world, this is going to hurt working writers as well as studio suits.

Or, to take a page from my blog postings about a year ago:

"Dry month for TV, though, and here's the thing... I barely noticed. I still have so many DVDs to watch, videogames to play, comics and books to read, not to mention the diversion that is the Internet, that if TV magically went away tomorrow, I don't know that I'd actually miss it. And I am a diehard fan of the medium. This should scare the shit out of TV executives, who still seem intent on driving off what audience there is with hair-trigger cancellations of serial shows, constant rejiggering of schedules and some of the lowest common denominator programming I've ever seen."

Could the strike be the "TV magically went away tomorrow" I was thinking of? Nah, probably not. But honestly, despite enjoying several shows right now, from an entertainment consumer point of view, I don't really care that much about the strike. I've got *plenty* to occupy my time.

Guitar Hero III

I'm maybe 75% of the way through the game on Medium difficulty (I'm in Japan, for anyone playing the game who knows what that means), and I'm digging it. It doesn't have the pure "holy shit, this is cool!" thrill that the first one did, but it's the third sequel (counting Rock the '80s), so really, that's probably not fair to expect.

But the good news is, the loss of the original Harmonix team to Rock Band does not hurt the game. There are definite touches where you can see the changes that have been made, some good (original artists instead of covers!), some not as good (tons of product placement), and some that I both like and dislike. This includes boss battles against Tom Morello and Slash (cool to see this kind of integration with real life guitar legends, I'm not wild about the boss battle mechanic, even though it's not super-hard to figure out or anything) and slicker, more animated cut scenes (they're fun, although I miss the sort of grungy, rock art designs of the first and second games).

The song list is fantastic. I was hoping for some Green Day off American Idiot, some Beatles, and I'd love it if the next game has The Fratellis, but this was a pretty damn impressive song list with some true favorites on there. Muse's Knights of Cydonia is an awesome pick... and very hard to play, too. That one's a challenge. It is definitely a touch harder to play, but as someone who's grown in skill enough to beat Medium but not really challenge Expert, I liked that incremental bump up in difficulty.

What I'd love to see in future games is for them to ditch the "rise to fame" story that we've seen in all the Guitar Hero games thus far. I don't remember who said it, but it doesn't seem that credible that a cover band would rise to popularity like this, although honestly, it's not realistic to have you playing original songs because where's the fun in that? But if you're going for over-the-top story, why not take it a bit further? I'd love it if it was a "Conquering Hell" story along the lines of Black Metal or even a twisted romance/coming of age tale like Bryan O'Malley's singularly unique Scott Pilgrim. Or even a "music is magic" thing like Phonogram. Basically, I'd like to see something like the music-influenced stories of comics, something that's as much story as it is music.

But really, that's just window dressing. Guitar Hero III has plenty of that, too, including a ton of cool novelty guitars, outfits and characters. I've purchased Metalhead, a decommissioned '50s style Soviet robot with a laser gun guitar, as my default character. Kind of cool to think about unlocking both Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) and Slash (of Guns 'n' Roses) and playing in dual mode with a friend, each of playing a real guitar legend.

Overall, big thumbs up. The one notable thing missing is online play, which is available for the other platforms but not PS/2. I kinda wish I'd never bought that online adapter, because I rarely ever use it. I would use it for Guitar Hero, though... shame I can't.

Oh, and I definitely recommend either getting a wireless guitar or buying the Guitar Hero III bundle that comes with the new wireless guitar. Playing wireless is just a nice little touch that makes the game more fun.

Holy... Wow.

Can we *please* have this guy as President?

He may be a naive idealist, or he may be a smooth political operator making promises he can't or won't keep. But when I read speeches like the one above, I actually see a time when I might be able to say "The President of the United States" with pride instead of wanting to cringe and wash my mouth out with soap.

I want the polls to be wrong. I want this guy to be the Democratic contender for the Presidency. And I want him to win.

I can't remember the last time I felt inspired by a candidate. Certainly there wasn't anyone close in 2004.

Damn You, TV!

I had forgiven The CW for canceling Veronica Mars, at least enough to watch Reaper, which was getting good buzz. "I didn't see the pilot for the fourth season," I thought, "Maybe it just wasn't any good. After all, season three was a bit bumpy, to say the least."

Then Jennifer Armstrong at EW found the link to the two-part Veronica Mars mini-pilot for season four. And I watched it, and was reminded that thanks to the CW, we have Kristen Bell being misused on the increasingly awful Heroes, no Enrico Colantoni, no Tina Majorino... and none of Rob Thomas and crew's sharp writing.

I've been wavering on Reaper, haven't watched the last three episodes, and this decided it for me. I'm canceling the CW for a while, because clearly their executives wouldn't know a great show if it bit them on the ass.

Dear TV Gods... Please let the strike kill this project in the womb

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

There may (and I stress may) be someone who could do an American version of the brilliantly funny British sitcom Spaced. Maybe. I doubt it.

I'm 100% certain it is not producer McG or anyone who has been involved in Will & Grace, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll, The O.C. or Fastlane.

The only possible saving grace is that we might finally get region 1 discs of the original Spaced series.

Bad TV! No donut for you!

Blog Update for October 2007

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.

Another great month for comics, with another dozen books that didn't make the cut but easily could have, including three new launch titles from promising new company Red 5 Comics. Also included in that list were the finale of Highwaymen and Fear Agent Last Goodbye, two excellent miniseries, and the latest issues of Marvel Adventures Hulk #4, Daredevil #101, Transformers Devastation #2, Warhammer Forge Of War #4, DMZ #24, New Warriors #5 and Buffy The Vampire Slayer #7. The tally this month: 2 Vertigo, 3 DC (not one of them Countdown-related), 2 Archaia, 3 from Image (including the debut of Proof), 2 Dark Horse and 8 Marvel, including three new books in She-Hulk (Peter David's run), Marvel Zombies 2 (surprisingly fun) and Daredevil Annual (sort of a "pilot" for a Black Tarantula mini, which would be awesome). It's funny, there are a bunch of Marvel books I absolutely hate, but in terms of the big two, they're still much closer to producing what I want right now. Well, me and like 60% of the comics market at the moment.

Got a lot more graphic novels read this month, so many that Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, Savage Brothers, Warhammer 40K: Damnation Crusade and Essential Moon Knight Vols. 1-2 didn't make the list. My novel reading slowed down, as I finished The Amber Spyglass and read a single chapter of Stephen Colbert's new book. My overall take on His Dark Materials is that Golden Compass was a really good book without a real ending, and the rest of the trilogy was kind of a slog. There are neat ideas and characters throughout, but the vibe of Golden Compass had me feeling like I wanted to see a lot more of that world, and instead the next two books were about different worlds that I didn't find as interesting. Now I've added to the reading list not only Gates of Fire, but the first book of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire and the first book of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.

Great month for TV, as the Fall season was in full swing. Mind you, it's a disappointing Fall season, with nothing great and plenty of disappointing new seasons (Heroes is stinking up the place, Friday Night Lights is worrying me and Reaper had a great pilot and then a repetitive and increasingly dull series), but there are still plenty of shows to watch, especially if you've got Showtime. I know common wisdom is that The Office is weaker in hour episodes, but I've been really digging it, and loving 30 Rock and My Name is Earl as well. Pushing Daisies has been great, although I miss the visual spark the first two episodes had, reputedly at an amazingly gigantic budget (explaining where they went). Chuck has gotten better, and I now look forward to watching it... my theory is that if you smashed together Chuck and Reaper, you'd have one very good show, instead of one weak one and one good but not great one. That said, even though there were a dozen shows on my list this week (Scrubs and Chuck should really be on there), if there does turn out to be a writer's strike as tomorrow, I can't say it'll worry me overmuch. It'll let me get caught up on my bursting Netflix queue and a bunch of other DVDs I've bought.

Added to the ever-expanding blogroll this month: Scott Dunbier's new blog, sketchblogs from Nate Bellegarde and Cory Walker, the awesome "Team vs. Team" blog Superest, Leigh Walton's excellent comics analysis blog Picture Poetry, Alex Robinson's blog (where he's serializing some of his mini-comics, all of which are great) and Riccardo Burchielli's blog, among a few others.

Heroes: OK, Who Still Cares?

I don't know how these little recaps of mine turned into a weekly thing, or how many people are actually reading them. At this point, it's more like venting my anger at a good (and potentially great) show that has become not just weak, but actually bad. If I hadn't invested a seasons' worth of interest already, if this were a new show, I would have given up a couple of episodes ago. As is, I think I've got one, maybe two more episodes like the ones we've been given before I give up anyway.

So I won't have a lot to say this time because honestly, the show isn't really worth that much time. I'll just say this:

*Kristen Bell introduced one week, then she doesn't show up next week so we can get more time-traveling Hiro (in a predictable, and predictably weakly shot and scripted development in his painfully extended time travel detour), more Maya/Alejandro (seriously, if Sylar doesn't kill one of them soon, I'm just going to start fast forwarding through their sequences) and more Claire/West high school drama. Also missing? The only interesting story, about the murders of the supers of the past, and thus any glimpse of Parkman and Petrelli. So basically, extra doses of the three irritating new characters, no glimpse of the three most interesting characters and no check-in at all on the plot I actually care about. Bleh.

*I was out of town, so I was watching the show live, not on Tivo. I fell asleep for about 10-15 minutes there. When I woke up, I didn't feel as if I'd missed anything. Not a good sign.

*Cool to say HRG being all badass, but it's in service to a lame story about some "forgotten" paintings by Isaac, another repetitive element from last season. Also repetitive, the big reveal at the end of the episode and the promise of an "alternate future" episode next week. I'm beginning to suspect they took the scripts from last season and just gave them a touch-up, rather than creating a whole new season.

*Does anyone give a shit whether Clare is a cheerleader or not? Anyone? Just checking. Because I sure don't. They need to get her the hell away from high school and the hell away from dreamy annoying boyfriend dude.

The show is spending all its time exploring questions I don't care about the answers to, and letting the few interesting questions they've managed to accidentally raise linger and die a slow, unattended death. This show needs major surgery, and soon.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 31, 2007

TOP FIVE
Chiaroscuro HC (Fantastic little indy gem that vanished and is now back as a complete hardcover. Can't wait to read all of it, it was a strange and compelling book)
Dynamo 5 #8 (Picking up where the trade left off, and after re-reading the trade recently, I'm really ready for more)
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #2 (First issue was great, maybe even better than the first series... looking forward to more)
Perry Bible Fellowship Trial Of Colonel Sweeto HC (Probably the funniest, weirdest comic on the Internet, and the book is reportedly very well put together)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #9 (One of my absolute favorite series, and each issue confirms why I feel that way)

THE REST
3 Minute Sketchbook TP (Fun concept, fun sketches, I'll check this out)
American Virgin #20 (I'm so pissed this is being canceled. Not surprised, really, it's a weird book that's not for everyone, and the market just doesn't have room for those books right now. But c'mon, they couldn't have given them up to issue #25?)
Annihilation Conquest Quasar #4 (Good finale, nice reveal on the mysterious savior, weird continuity glitch with Wraith)
Biff Bam Pow #1 (Wow, you wanna talk about late. Two years or so this was announced. Still, it's Evan Dorkin and Sara Dyer, and will no doubt be entertaining. But jeez... indy people wonder where the sales went? When your timeliness makes Ultimates look punctual, you lose everyone but your hardcore readers)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Long Way Home TP (On balance, I think I decided I don't want to buy this series for re-reading... but it's a good read if you're a Buffy fan at all)
Daredevil Annual #1 (Reads like a pilot for a Black Tarantula miniseries, scripted by Ande Parks with art by Leandro Fernandez... and after reading it, I'm *totally* game for said miniseries)
DC Infinite Halloween Special #1 (Features work by Mark Waid, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Steve Seagle. Also features work by Dan Didio. Also features DnA returning to Resurrection Man. On balance, probably mostly gonna suck but will have a couple *great* stories, if I had to guess)
El Cazador Vol 1 TP (Disney reprints Crossgen's fallen pirate series... please let this be the start of a comic book continuation)
Flash Wonderland TP (The first Geoff Johns Flash... misses Kolins, but Unzueta's work is solid, and it lays down a lot of important foundation stuff. Plus it's just kinda fun)
Immortal Iron Fist Vol 1 TP (Fraction, Brubaker & Aja's kung-fu cool book comes to softcover... and now I want to hold out for a giant sized hardcover of two volumes)
Jack Of Fables #16 (Caught up on the series in the second trade, now I need to get caught back up in singles)
Primordia #1 (New fantasy book from Archaia, looks like great art)
Special Forces #1 (Kyle Baker's very late Image book about lowest common denominator soldiers. Probably very funny with great cartooning)
Tales Of The Fear Agent 12 Steps In One (Fear Agent one shot by a different creative team... I'm always digging the Fear Agent)
Wasteland #13 (I've sort of moved to reading trades on this one, honestly... but I'm anxiously awaiting the next trade)