Go Speed Racer Go

I was really looking forward to the Speed Racer movie, but when the Rotten Tomatoes reviews starting rolling in, the movie was getting a critical drubbing. Not just a "some folks don't seem to like it" but a "Every right-thinking critic hates it" kind of thing. Currently, it stands at a pretty brutal 35%.

I don't know what movie those critics saw, quite honestly. Because after reading reviews by Heidi MacDonald and Chris Sims, I decided to go ahead and take my daughter to it, and we both loved it.

Yes, the dialogue is a bit hokey and the plot is completely predictable. Yes, it probably should have lost half an hour somehow. But the ideas, the visual style, the sheer fun of the movie is undeniable, the racing and fighting scenes are imaginative, fresh and *great*, and the story and characters are perfectly fun. I suspect that a lot of the critics were expecting it to be either: A) Wildly inventive bizarre storytelling from the Wachowskis or B) Wink-wink nudge-nudge self-referential pop humor about how lame Speed Racer cartoons were.

Instead, what they got was a sentimental (at times melodramatic), funny (at times goofy), action-packed straightforward story. It's the "one man against a corrupt system with his family behind him" story that we've all seen dozens if not hundreds of times, but it's backed by some truly outlandish and ground-breaking visuals. It's got more in common with the visual style of Tim Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory or ABC's Pushing Daisies than it does with The Matrix or V For Vendetta, and maybe critics were unprepared for that.

Or maybe, as Sims suggest, they actively hate joy. I know that Lisa Schwarzbaum's review in EW practically drips with contempt for the source material, and she's definitely reviewing the movie they failed to deliver (that she was clearly expecting) rather than taking the movie on its own terms, and I suspect a lot of reviewers brought that baggage with them. Certainly the deflated expectations of The Matrix sequels will dog the Wachowskis in all future reviews, just as the diminishing returns of M. Night Shyamalan's movies have made him a target for critics.

But if you go in expecting a fun, candy-colored pop action movie like the one promised in the trailer, I can't imagine being disappointed. And for the record, I enjoyed the trailers, disliked The Matrix sequels and was not even remotely a fan of the original Speed Racer cartoons, so there's my prejudices laid out right up-front.

Weekly Comics to Come - May 7th & 14th

TOP FIVE
Buffy Season 8 Vol 2 No Future For You TP (Holding out for a swanky hardcover to match my retailer edition hardcover... but I don't know how long I'll hold out, because this series keeps getting better)
Guardians Of Galaxy #1 (Awesome with a capital A. Full review at Comic Pants)
Life Sucks GN (Interesting vampire/slacker graphic novel. Full review of this one too.)
Serenity Better Days #3 (Concluding the all-too-brief, but pretty good, return of the Firefly crew)
Warhammer Condemned By Fire #1 (A really great opening issue of pulpy dark fantasy. Full review on Comic Pants.)

THE REST
All New Iron Manual (I love tech specs and I love Iron Man, and I'm pretty sure this is Eliott R. Brown work too)
Amazing Spider-Man #559 (Growing bored, quite honestly. Nice art by Marcos Martin, it's inoffensive enough, but it's kind of plodding for what should be a fast-paced weekly book)
Booster Gold #9 (A combination of nostalgic love for the character, an appreciation for time and alternate world travel and a pretty damn good comic has made this one a reading favorite)
BPRD 1946 #5 (Concluding the excellent look into the early days of the BPRD)
DMZ #31 (Election story continues to impress)
Green Lantern No Fear TP (Three years later, the first volume of Green Lantern is *finally* in trade. Two and a half years ago, I might have cared. Great planning, DC.)
Soleil Sky Doll #1 (Euro-comics from Marvel. Probably doomed, probably a bit on the dull side, writing-wise, but sure to be beautiful to look at)
Thunderbolts #120 (Some great stuff with Norman Osborn, some weaker stuff and a few godawful moments as Ellis hasn't gotten the memo of never, ever talking about the stupid Gwen Stacy-Norman Osborn story so we can pretend it didn't happen)
Tiny Titans #4 (My daughter fell in love with this book on Free Comic Book Day)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #11 (I'm like three issues behind on reading this book, and really need to catch up)
Walking Dead #49 (Dark as hell of late, but also a fascinating read. Kirkman is *merciless* to his characters)
Wonder Woman #20 (Simone's run on Wonder Woman has been fun so far)
X-Men Legacy #211 (Kind of digging this, despite it's huge '90s X-Men influence and unclear mandate... I like it at least as well as the Uncanny stuff right now)

WEEK OF MAY 7TH

TOP FIVE
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #14 (Fantastic issue, although if that cliffhanger is what it looks like, I'm going to be so f'ing pissed)
Gemini #1 (Great concept, strong execution, nice art)
George R R Martins Wild Cards #2 (Dug the second issue more than the first. It's tweaking my Wild Cards nostalgia, only to realize that I sold/gave away the novels at some point.)
Nova #13 (Possibly the best issue of Marvel's best series, as Nova takes on Galactus)
Question Vol 2 Poisoned Ground TP ('80s pulp at its best... so lives up to the hype)

THE REST
Abe Sapien The Drowning #4 (I've lost the plot, need to read it in trade at this point... but it's gorgeous to look at)
Batman Death Mask #2 (Not as strong as the first issue, but a pretty decent issue that recalls the Night of the Ninja episode of the animated series)
Cable #3 (Three issues in, not much has happened, and I'm growing bored. Fast. Swierczynski is *not* filling me with confidence about his Iron Fist takeover)
Dead Space #3 (Still creepy, still great art, starting to think I'll enjoy it more as a trade)
Dynamo 5 Annual #1 (Mixed reaction on the art, but there's some great Noble Causes/Dynamo 5 backstory here)
House Of Mystery #1 (New Vertigo launch, feels more like '90s Vertigo than modern... nice art, intriguing premise)
Invincible Iron Man #1 (Nowhere near as good as The Order or Iron Fist, tons better than almost any Iron Man in the last 10 years or so)
Iron Man Viva Las Vegas #1 (Fun, lightweight, has its issues but is readable)
Nightwing #144 (Slight recovery from last issue's slump, still not as good as the earlier issues of Tomasi's run)
Secret Invasion #2 (Shock! I didn't hate it, and the return of Mockingbird is a big deal for me, if it turns out to be true)
Suburban Glamour Vol 1 TP (Looking forward to checking this out at some point... first issue was good, and McKelvie's art is great)

Blog Update for April 2008

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. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.

Since it was a five week month, and a pretty good month as well, I went ahead and bumped to Top 25 comics for April. And I still had to leave a few out, including two debuts from new companies, Radical's Caliber #1 and the Dabels' George RR Martin's Wild Cards #1, plus the latest issues of Booster Gold (#8), Teen Titans Year One (#4), Nightwing (#143) and Wonder Woman (#19) from DC, Marvel Adventures Iron Man (#12), X-Factor (#30) and Uncanny X-Men (#497) from Marvel, Proof #7 from Image and Serenity Better Days #2 from Dark Horse. Of the ones I did pick, 8 were Marvel (one of them Criminal, but the rest Marvel Universe), 6 were Dark Horse, 4 were Image, 3 were DC, 3 were Vertigo and 1 was from Oni.

After reading through 10 good graphic novels this month, I decided to take a break and read the first Dresden Files novel, which I found pretty good reading. I'll probably do the same each month for a while, stop after I've read 10 so that I can read some actual books.

TV is pretty thin right now, but what I'm watching, I'm generally enjoying. That means seven shows, half NBC comedies plus one comedy on CBS and two genre dramas on ABC and SCI-FI. Plus the new Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon, which I've been watching with my daughter, and it's really good. It "gets" Spidey as well as the Batman Animated series got Batman and his universe. This means I've had a lot of time for DVDs, and I've seen a bunch of those I really liked lately, including Juno, 3:10 to Yuma, Brick and the BBC miniseries State of Play. Also picked up Casino Royale used (and cheap) from Netflix.

Added a couple items to the RSS feed this month, including Keith Baker's blog, the blog of cartoonist Mitch Clem, the production blog for the upcoming Trickster comics anthology and the retail/comics blog Snap Judgments. I was very pleased to discover that Kerry Callen has a blog, and added that one as well. Oh, and I finally added a gaming section for Critical Hits, Mearls, Baker and the Wizards of the Coast feed.

Free Comic Book Day thoughts

We had a pretty good Free Comic Book Day at the store this year. Last year was only two months after I bought the store, and we had a huge event, with two writers and two artists in attendance, and we had the best day of sales the store has had since I bought it, not to mention having (I'd estimate) about 600-700 people walk out happy with handfuls of free comics.

This year, with CAPE getting bigger and bigger, both the writers decided to head up to Dallas, and one of the artists had moved, but Scott Kolins was kind enough to come in and sign and sketch for us for more than three hours. We had him set up at a table up front, and there was always a big crowd, as he sketched, signed and showed off super-cool prints of his covers for Rogues Revenge #1-2, upcoming Brave and the Bold issues and other stuff. He sold a few prints, signed several comics and did lots of free sketches, and that was great.

At the back of the store, as always, we had set up two tables and broken up the comics into categories of "All Ages," "Ten and Up" and "Mature Readers." I was kind of pleased that this year, the Mature Readers section was less than a half-dozen books, but the "All Ages" section was near overflowing. We had ordered heavily, as always, but we started off with a three per person comics limit (more on that later in the post). At the store manager's suggestion, we bumped to four later on. And we weren't diehards about it. If someone found four or five they liked, they were welcome to take that many. Nobody got greedy and asked "Can I just have one of everything?"

It was a busy day, finally slowing down at around 5:00 or so, at which point we condensed what was left onto a table up front so that the decreased number of employees (we were down to two, and occasionally one) could make sure everybody heard the deal when they came in.

One of the high points was having a young girl come in who used to shop with us buying Crossgen. She had dropped out because Crossgen went under (a fear we'd always had), but now that she was a back, and a little older, we suggested Mouse Guard and Fables and a few others, and it looks like she might find some comics to like again.

We didn't hit the heights in sales that we did last year, but we still had a very good Saturday. We had also made flyers with "What's Cool in Comics," one all-ages with Iron Man, Mouse Guard and a couple others and another with Fables, Walking Dead, Buffy and Dark Tower, which we gave out to everyone, and I'm hoping that'll lure some new readers back in.

I worked a 15 hour day, from 9 AM to midnight (since we do all our reordering on Saturdays), and although I was tired, I felt like we'd put on a pretty good event. I was pleased with the turnout, pleased with how everyone seemed to be happy.

Then I get online a couple days later and find folks complaining about how they *only* got three comics at their local store (happily, nobody seemed to have that reaction to us, but they easily could have, since three was our general limit). One even went so far as to gripe that he went to Austin Books (one of the best comic book stores I've ever been to) and was unhappy with the treatment there, where he was allowed to pick 10 books. Somebody else posted rather proudly (although he disingenuously claimed not to be proud) that he had stolen 20 books rather than stick to the limit of three at his shop. There's even a well-known blogger and retailer who is griping about how so many stores "fucked up" Free Comic Book Day. I know he's not talking about me in particular, I know that he's not entirely wrong, but seeing it from someone who understands the pitfalls and balancing act was just... draining.

I thought I'd gotten to the point where Internet stupidity and the sense of entitlement that often comes with it doesn't bother me, but the aftermath of Free Comic Book Day online has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I'm still pleased with how it went for us, but it makes me sad and angry to see folks complaining because they didn't feel that a few free comics were enough, and that somehow retailers owed them a free copy of each book, a sale on everything in the store and maybe a free pony too.

It's Official: Bush Worst President Ever

CNN has a poll that indicates Bush has an approval rating of 28%, lower than any President before him.

This makes me feel a little bit better about the American people. Why only a little bit?

Because there were still enough people to elect him to a second term!

Saying "Whoops, we fucked up, guess you guys were right and we *should* have elected Kerry" doesn't make me feel that much better about my country. Especially when there are plenty of indications that we've learned nothing, and McCain (representing many of the same political interests that make the Bush Administration a blight on the country) has a shot at getting elected in November.

Huh. Maybe it doesn't make me feel a little bit better after all. Maybe it instead makes me feel like a lot of people abrogate responsibility rather easily.

"Man, that Bush is the worst President we've ever had."

"But didn't you vote for him? Twice?"

"Well, yeah, but gas prices weren't over $3 in 2004. And I thought we were *this* close to winning that war in Iraq and getting rid of all the terrorists."

(sound of baseball bit hitting face)

Just Got Back from Iron Man

Holy shit.

That was as good as the trailers promised. It may in fact be my favorite superhero movie ever. And I include both The Incredibles and Batman Mask of the Phantasm in that calculation.

Stay until the end... the post-credit teaser is great.

Just a great, fun movie that is laugh out loud funny but doesn't make fun of superheroes, has great action, great characters, great acting... Favreau has just showed everybody how it's done and raised the bar. Give that man a blank checkbook and let him make the Avengers movie.

The Republican Tax Plan

Y'know, I'm no big fan of Clinton's health insurance mandate. But Jesus...

McCain's plan? Give money to the insurance companies from *your* taxes.

How's he going to pay for it? By taking away a tax cut from employers, thus reducing the impetus for them to offer you affordable healthcare in the first place.

I can't believe the sheer balls it takes to present this as "Putting choices back into the hands of citizens."

Putting more power into the hands of fucking insurance companies is more like it.

That Sound You Heard?

That was the sound of any respect I had for Brian Williams flushing down the toilet.

Smith Michaels pretty much nails it in his commentary. That anyone would respect this as Pulitzer-worthy commentary is kind of sad, that Brian Williams singled it out and encouraged his viewers (or readers, it was on the NBC Nightly News blog) to go read it just kills me.

I don't have a *ton* of respect for any of the TV journalists... but I liked Williams when I'd seen him. To see him so pleased by this piece of shit piece of writing disturbs me.

Ka-Baam! comes to Austin

It was almost 10 years ago that I went to a comic-book/superhero themed improv show in New York called Ka-Baam!! It was run by Steve Wacker (who is now editor of the Spidey titles at Marvel) and featured amongst others Dan Raspler (who was then a bigwig editor at DC on titles I don't remember). It was a very fun show, and I had written it off as a unique but essentially unduplicatable experience, what with it being a limited run show and me being in Austin anyway.

Of course, then I got the announcement that from May 3rd through July 5th, at 8:00 PM every Saturday, Ka-Baam!! is being put on at the Hideout Theatre in Austin. $10 tickets right in my price range.

Problem being, Saturday (like Wednesday) is one of those days I pretty much can't take off from work. We do all our reordering, and taking a night off means major headaches for me and the manager and more work later, and much as I'd like to see the show again, I can't justify that.

But... if you're in the Austin area and have a fondness for superheroes... definitely check this show out. More info at www.hideouttheatre.com and kabaam.austinimprov.com. Press info below:

Ka-baam!!is four-color fantasy writ large and on-the-spot by a cast of Austin'smost heroic improv comedians. Every Saturday in May and June audience suggestions will inspire the origins and adventures of three never-before-seen heroes in a comic book story that will never be seenagain. Each week the Golden Age of comics returns with the deadliest ofvillains, most ridiculous of brawls and special guest comic bookartists every week to capture the action in pencil and ink.

Ka-Baam!! is the brain child of Steve Wacker, former editor at DCComics and current editor at Marvel Comics. After a four-year run inNew York City the show is being launched here in Austin and directed byAsaf Ronen who has been with the show since its inception. It is thecomic book crossover of the year -- even if you have no idea what acrossover is!

Created by Steve Wacker (editor, Marvel Comics), directed by Asaf Ronen (The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard) and featuring: Erik Adams, Kareem Badr, Kaci Beeler, Jon Clinkenbeard, Justin Davis, Roy Janik, Kacey Samiee, Audrey Sansom, Michael Thomas, and Jason Vines. Free comic books provided by Austin Books & Comics.

Weekly Comics to Come - April 30, 2008

TOP FIVE
BPRD Vol 8 Killing Ground TP (Another great Mignola/Arcudi/Davis BPRD arc)
Green Arrow Year One HC (Diggle and Jock can do no wrong together, this was a great mini)
Immortal Iron Fist #14 (Following up on last issue's cliffhanger, can't see how this will be anything but awesome... bittersweet, though, since it's one issue closer to the end)
Noble Causes #33 (I've read the first three issues of the five years later relaunch, and they're all very good)
Order #10 (Speaking of bittersweet... I expect it'll go out on a high note, I'm sad it has to go out at all)

THE REST
Caliber #1 (King Arthur meets Western from new publisher, $1 comic... looks intriguing)
Daredevil Blood Of The Tarantula (One-shot, and I liked the previous Tarantula story from Parks/Brubaker, etc.)
Dc Universe Zero (Expect to be disappointed, but I at least have to give it a shot and see)
Fantastic Four Beginning Of The End TP (Collects the McDuffie stuff and the Beland one-shot, a good FF trade)
Gumby Vol 1 TP (Missed this one when it first hit, but I read parts of it on Chris Sims' blog and when Dan Grendell bought it, and it looks great... not going to miss my second chance to pick it up)
Hercules #1 (From the folks putting out Caliber, another $1 comic based on classic Hercules)
Local #11 (Yay! Finally, a new issue of Local!)
Magic Pickle GN (I've got all the old Magic Pickle stuff, but I love this weird bit of all-ages comics from Scott Morse)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #12 (More on Stark's father, an interesting MA Iron Man subplot, plus obscure villain Kiber the Cruel!)
New Gods Action Figures (I don't buy many action figures anymore, but these Kirby-based figures look cool as hell)
Proof #7 (Enjoyed the first arc, but I'm liking the book even more now that the setup is out of the way)
Speed Racer Racer X Origins Collection TP (Dug these stories when Wildstorm put them out, hadn't realized they were Jo Chen art, so I'll definitely pick this trade up)
Teen Titans #58 (Pretty solid fun, approachable super-teen team stuff by Sean McKeever)
Teen Titans Year One #4 (Gorgeous art, fun story... nervous about the mopey solicits for #5-6, but I love what I've seen so far)
Thor Ages Of Thunder (I'm not a huge Thor fan, but I am a Fraction fan, and Zircher's art looks sharp)
Usagi Yojimbo #111 (Last issue with Gen and Usagi was one of my favorite issues in a while... Sakai continues to impress on this book, even after years and years of doing it)
Wildguard Insider #1 (Yay! Todd Nauck's fun reality TV superheroes are back for a new mini!)
X-Men Legacy #210 (Still not entirely sold, still mildly curious enough to read)

The Strawman

Over at his blog, Tom Brevoort offers up a familiar spin on an argument he has used a few times before to complain about indecisive fans. You can read the full piece here, but the important part is this:

"For example: it's not great secret that there are still people upset about the changes to Spider-Man. Fair enough, But in the space of a day or two, I got five-or-so comments lamenting the elimination of Spidey's organic webbing, and the fact that there's been no mention of the additional powers he gained during "The Other."

Which comes as a bit of a shock, frankly, because the overwhelming majority of the reactions we saw at the time those two stories came out were decidedly negative! Nobody seemed to like the organic webbing, and people wrote long treatises about how Peter creating mechanical web-shooters was better, because this showcased his science skills. But just a couple short years later, we go back to the mechanical web-shooters, and it's like we fire-bombed something."

This is, to put it plainly, a ridiculous argument. What Tom is saying here is that of the 100,000+ readers of Spider-Man, five of them spoke to him in New York to complain about the elimination of organic webbing and new "The Other" powers. These five people, through some brand of statistical sampling I'm unfamiliar with, also represent the hundreds if not thousands of fans who disliked it when the organic webbing and "The Other" powers were introduced.

It is not even remotely possible that these might be different fans. Because clearly, if there were five comments, they must come from the majority of the 100,000 fans. I'm not sure how 0.00005 percent equals a majority, but hey, I was a journalism major, not a math major.

Brevoort (and Quesada, and Didio, and Bendis, etc.) love to use this argument. "Well, these fans are now loving the same thing the fans were complaining about a few months ago! You crazy fans, you don't know what you want!" When in fact, while some fans change their minds, many of them probably were glad to see the organic webbing and "Other" powers go, they just were sad that the way they were eliminated was by a ridiculous, shoddy bit of storytelling that ran late and accomplished a goal nobody in particular was clamoring for (eliminating the Spidey/MJ marriage) along with the stuff people *were* clamoring for (good stories, new creative teams). Or maybe they hated the organic webbing, they *love* that it's gone, but they didn't think to come up to Brevoort and say "Hey, great job getting rid of that organic webbing!"

Just because I'm liking some of Brand New Day doesn't mean I thought One More Day was the way to get there. Just because I wound up loving The Order doesn't mean I liked that Civil War was used to set it up. Just because I enjoyed most of 52 doesn't mean I'm in love with the new multiverse and Countdown. And just because five fans came up to you at a convention to tell you they miss the organic webbing doesn't mean we all do.

Brevoort is smart enough to know this. He also knows full well that fans are more likely to offer negative criticism rather than positive criticism (and even the positive, at a Con, is more likely to be of a "You guys rock!" general kind of thing, not a "thanks for ditching those lame-as-hell organic webshooters" kind of thing).

He's making a strawman argument to try and belittle legitimate criticism along with the irrational crazytalk that too often passes for criticism on the message boards. Brevoort's blog is a great resource, a look at comics from a guy with a ton of experience and smarts. It's just a shame when he dips into this well of overly defensive rah-rah PR.

No shocker, the process continues

So Hilary Clinton has won Pennsylvania by what looks like about a 10% margin. She's still pretty much in line to lose the nomination unless there's a dramatic shift in momentum and she starts winning every state from here on out by 20% or more or the superdelegates decide en masse to throw in with the Clinton camp, but that's a plenty big margin of victory to justify staying in the race.

Certainly it's hard to argue that the momentum has shifted. Clinton is winning races and taking shots, Obama is starting to seem tired of the whole thing, and making sloppy mistakes that don't do him any good (like the "bitter" comments). He's also clearly the front-runner, and that's a much different position to run in. It seems like the Obama machine is having some trouble correcting for that new status quo.

As to whether or not Clinton *should* stay in the race, or drop out for the good of the party? Or whether Obama should, even though he's in the lead? At this point, they might as well fight it out to the convention. The damage has been done. A few months back, polls indicated that either candidate had a good lead (Obama had a bigger one) on presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. Now they're about even.

Now this isn't really all that telling, the polls aren't wholly accurate and even when they are, so much is in flux right now that it's impossible to get an accurate reading on what's going to happen in the general election. But it's hard to argue that this bitter fight between two rival candidates has *not* been a benefit to the Democratic party. It has instead given the Republican candidate a fighting chance in the next election.

This fact is going to only heighten the bitterness in the two camps, as each will blame the other candidate for dragging things out.

I don't really have any solutions to offer. I will say that the process has dragged me from "fired up, ready to go" to "Jesus, can we please have a fucking candidate already?" I mean, I'm still hoping to vote for Obama, hoping he'll be our President, but it's starting to feel more like naive optimism in the face of an increasingly bitter fight that looks pretty much like politics as usual.

Summer Movie Anticipation

Even though I've been increasingly disappointed by the blockbuster movies of summer, I continue to look forward to them gleefully. The summer always looks better than it turns out to be, and this year in particular there are a ton of movies I'm excited about. I was going to do some kind of post about them, but couldn't figure out exactly what to write, and then Smith Michaels over at Blurred Productions posted his "Optimistic, Cautious, Pessimistic" post and I thought, "Hey! Let's steal that!"

Except that I'm also modifying it into a sort of Top 13 movies I'm looking forward to this summer. With trailers to show you why. Starting with #13, and moving to my most anticipated movie of the summer. Btw, with my schedule and my inability to get out of the house on a regular basis, not to mention that I hate seeing movies by myself, my guess is that I'll see at least 50% of these late, when they come to DVD. Which may happen with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Harold & Kumar as well, although I'm really excited to see both of those too.

13. Tropic Thunder (August 15)


Optimistic Because: Great cast, potentially funny concept, and I've liked a lot of what Ben Stiller directed
Cautious Because: The trailer doesn't look great or provide a ton of laugh out loud moments
Pessimistic Because: Meet The Fockers

12. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (May 22)


Optimistic Because: The '50s time period update is kind of cool, even closing on sixty Harrison Ford *still* looks awesome as Indy, plus I have super nostalgic attachment to Indiana Jones
Cautious Because: Steven Spielberg is very hit and miss with me
Pessimistic Because: George Lucas stinks up anything he touches these days, and I have little interest in seeing more of Shia LaBeouf's "acting"

11. The Dark Knight (July 18)


Optimistic Because: Heath Ledger looks impressive as the Joker, and everybody else loved Batman Begins, so I want to like this
Cautious Because: I did not love Batman Begins, found it a bit over-the-top toward the end and loved Bale as Bruce Wayne, but hated his growly Batman
Pessimistic Because: Not really pessimistic, just not really hyped either

10. Incredible Hulk (June 13)


Optimistic Because: Ed Norton as Banner, Tim Roth as Abomination? That's pretty cool. And Louis Leterrier does pretty good action, and an action-heavy Hulk film is what I'd like. Also, not a bad little trailer.
Cautious Because: I liked The Transporter, but it was highly cheesy
Pessimistic Because: The strife between Norton, Leterrier and the studio, which delayed the marketing until almost the last minute, is worrying

9. Wanted (June 27)


Optimistic Because: The trailer looks good, I love Angelina Jolie, like Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy and enjoyed the Nightwatch/Daywatch films of the director
Cautious Because: I didn't really like The Wanted graphic novels
Pessimistic Because: This could just be a Matrix style also-ran.

8. X-Files: I Want To Believe (July 25)

Optimistic Because: Turns out that even though I stopped watching the show several seasons before it ended, I do still have some love for the property and the characters
Cautious Because: No trailer, so there's no way of knowing what we're getting other than the bits of online news
Pessimistic Because: Right before or right after the movie (depending on how charitable you're being) The X-Files began to really, really, really suck

7. Get Smart (June 20)


Optimistic Because: Steve Carell is perfect casting for Maxwell Smart, Anne Hathaway is pretty good casting for Agent 99
Cautious Because: The trailer is merely OK
Pessimistic Because: Casting him as a fish out of water analyst seems to miss the point of Maxwell Smart, and re-inventing TV comedy franchises rarely works out well in film

6. The Happening (June 13)


Optimistic Because: I generally like M. Night Shyamalan, I like the genre and it's a pretty intriguing trailer
Cautious Because: The Village was a bit weak
Pessimistic Because: By all accounts, Lady in the Water sucked

5. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (July 11)


Optimistic Because: Two great trailers, good cast, and I loved Pan's Labyrinth
Cautious Because: I wasn't a huge fan of the first Hellboy
Pessimistic Because: Let's be honest, nobody is going to do better on Hellboy than the comics, especially considering how great the BPRD and Hellboy stuff is right now

4. Pineapple Express (August 8)


Optimistic Because: Great trailer, nice to see Franco in a role more like his Freaks & Geeks role, love Seth Rogen
Cautious Because: It's easier for comedy to fall flat than action or drama, although I don't expect this will

3. Wall*E (June 27)


Optimistic Because: Pixar. Never. Misses. There is no doubt in my mind that I'll love this movie, because I haven't been wowed by a trailer since The Incredibles, but I loved Ratatouille and Cars just as much as all the rest.

2. Speed Racer (May 9)


Optimistic Because: The trailers look awesome, I love the stylized look, I still remember how great The Matrix was and it turns out I have some nostalgic fondness for Speed Racer, even though I was never a fan of the cartoon. I even went out and bought some of the Hot Wheels style cars the other day
Cautious Because: It's ambitious, and ambition can sometimes lead to failure
Pessimistic Because: There were two really weak Matrix sequels

1. Iron Man (May 2)


Optimistic Because: The trailers are fantastic, Jon Favreau has directed some great movies, Robert Downey Jr. is perfect casting (and I loved him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Iron Man is a favorite hero of mine, the armor looks great... so many reasons to look forward to it
Cautious Because: There's always the "great trailer, sucky movie" potential. But honestly, I have a hard time this is going to be anything but the best superhero movie in a long time, possibly the best superhero movie period

Weekly Comics to Come - April 23, 2008

TOP FIVE
Dynamo 5 #12 (One of my favorite superhero books)
Fables #72 (The last issue was *awesome*... can't wait to see what's next)
Northlanders #5 (Continuing the opening arc)
Uncanny X-Men #497 (Kind of a fun San Francisco based superhero thing)
Wormwood Calamari Rising #4 (Wormwood vs. evil squid monsters)

THE REST
Previews Vol XVIII #5 (Down the Line on the way)
White Picket Fences Double Feature GN ('50s era sci-fi)
Wolverine First Class #2 (Fun, but I don't know how much life there is in the premise)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #11 (Continuity in-joke filled... kind of a weaker issue, actually)

One More Year Closer to Forty

It's my birthday today. Well, technically. It's April 17th, although I'm pretty sure I was born later than 1:48 in the morning.

That makes me 37. (The only way I can remember this, btw, is by subtracting the current year from 1971, the year I was born. Seriously, I cannot memorize this one simple fact. I know that SHIELD stands for, I can name the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Teen Titans, Avengers, Defenders, etc. but I cannot remember my age without basic math.)

Weirdly, getting older doesn't really bug me. I mean, things seem to get more or less better for me as time goes on. Randy of 1988 was a high school junior with abysmal dating abilities, no clear idea what he wanted to study in college and an occasional dose of what I like to call "mopey whiny little shit-itis." Randy of 1998 was in love and soon to be married, but he was also in a job he hated with no idea what he might want to do. Randy of 2008 has a wife he loves, two kids he loves, a good house and owns a comic book shop that shows every sign of providing a stable future. Not too shabby for a guy who can't remember his age without doing basic math.

I mean, getting older and living your life is kind of like falling. It can be a pleasant sensation, if you take the time to look around and enjoy the ride, and try not to think of the sudden stop at the end.

Anyway, the original plan to hit up Fogo De Chao for some delightful carnivore carnage was ended because of the massive amount of cash required to dine at a Brazilian steakhouse, but plans for a casual get-together with friends at Hula Hut and then getting together to play Rock Band seems like a pretty good birthday plan to me. I have to admit I feel a *wee* bit pathetic organizing my own birthday party, but I hated the last couple years when I didn't do much of anything, and I'm an organizer by nature, so what the hell.

So far for my birthday I've spent some of the cash from my in-laws on three XBox games (Star Wars KOTOR, Jade Empire and Call of Cthulhu), and I'm pretty sure my birthday money will go to further XBox related purchases like the wireless adapter and XBox credits to buy more Rock Band songs and maybe the new downloadable game Ikaruga.

Yes, I realize this was an entirely self-indulgent post that is entirely irrelevant to 99% of you.

Cut me some slack.

It's my birthday.

Elitist? Are You FUCKING Kidding Me?

This kind of shit just pisses me off. Not the CNN article, which is quite well written and notes correctly that wanting to be President pretty much makes all the candidates elitist by nature, but this whole line of attack.

In case you haven't heard, Obama made some remarks in Pennsylvania about how some small-town folks are bitter about the government and turn to guns and religion for comfort.

Now just because that happens to sound 100% frikkin' accurate isn't really relevant to the discussion.

But it's spurred this whole thing of Clinton and McCain trying to paint Obama as some member of the elite, removed from the society that he wishes to govern.

Kristi Keck (the writer at CNN) notes that as the candidates hit the campaign trail, "They fight to show they still share the average American's values, visiting bowling alleys, diners and schools along the way."

Seriously? This is what some of you want in a President? Even better, this is American life? Bowling alleys and diners? Should they drive around a NASCAR track and slug down a six pack while hunting too? Is that really what we, as a country, want to be?

Honestly, I don't really want Obama to be like me, except insofar as he represents some of the things I believe in, like universal health care, a reduction in corporate influence in our government, better energy and environmental policies, etc. In fact, the more Obama is like me, the more we're going to get a President who would rather not deal with national and international politics, instead favoring a Rock Band get-together or a D&D night with the Cabinet.

Which I think we can all agree we've had eight years of already. Just substitute "clearing brush at the ranch" for D&D and Rock Band.

Weekly Comics to Come - April 16th

Comics shipping the week of my birthday (April 17th, btw)

TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest #6 (I've read an advance copy, and this ends on a very high note)
Hellboy Library Ed Vol 1 Seed Of Destruction HC (Hellboy hardcovers! Woot!)
Incredible Hercules #116 (Fantastic issue, I love what Pak & Van Lente are doing with Athena in particular)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 14 (Sure to be another fascinating chapter in my favorite suspense manga)
Noble Causes #32 (Great jumping-on point for those who have been digging Dynamo 5, and a welcome return for those who dug Noble Causes too)

THE REST
Amazing Spider-Man #557 (Bachalo and Wells are producing some fun Spidey comics)
Batman And The Outsiders #6 (Really enjoyed the last issue, Dixon is knocking out some of the best books DC has right now)
Brave And The Bold #12 (Good, but I'm ready for the Megistus story to be over... the book is at its best without the over-arching plot)
Captain America #37 (Fantastic scenes this issue with a couple of my favorite supporting characters, I might be back onboard)
Damned Prodigal Sons #1 (The return of the great Prohibition era crime/supernatural story from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt)
DMZ #30 (Second chapter of the election story, which started strong last issue)
Grendel Behold The Devil #6 (Still loving this return to form from Matt Wagner)
Pigeons From Hell #1 (Joe Lansdale and fantastic artist Nathan Fox adapt a Robert E Howard horror story)
Robin #173 (Another fun, solid offering from Chuck Dixon at DC)
Sabrina Vol 2 #93 (I'm not a Sabrina fan, but this has art by Chad Thomas, an artist I really like)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #8 (Ostrander concludes his return to these characters... wish he was going to be doing more immediately, or taking over Checkmate)
Warhammer Forge Of War TP (Great, dark fantasy stuff from Boom! and Abnett & Edginton)
X-Factor #30 (Arcade! Plus more of the best X-title out there)

OK, We're Done

For those who thought the Salad Shooter or American Idol were the signs of the Roman Empire style beginning of the end for modern Western Civilization as a whole, I give you:

Actual working televisions for doll houses

It is clear that, as a species, we have nothing further to offer. Who's got next? Dogs? Cats? I hear good things about the Marmoset civilization.

Stop Uwe Boll from making more films

Courtesy of Critical Hits:

"There is a petition going around to stop Uwe Boll from making any more movies. He claimed he would stop if one million people signed it - here it is - make your vote count!"

Finally, the Internet could be used for good. Maybe if this works, we can start one for Paul W.S. Anderson, Michael Bay and Brett Rattner, too?

Weekly Comics to Come - April 9, 2008

TOP FIVE
Aqua Leung Vol 1 GN (I've actually read most of this already... short version: What if Aquaman was awesome?)
George R R Martins Wild Cards #1 (I have a huge fondness for these books, I'm kind of nostalgically interested in seeing this comic)
Nova #12 (Fantastic issue, promises big things leading into the final issue of Annihilation Conquest too)
Serenity Better Days #2 (Great first issue, already wishing it was more than three issues long)
Bprd 1946 #4 (Conclusion? Or penultimate? I can't remember, but I know it'll be good)

THE REST
Amazing Spider-Man #556 (Kinda digging Bachalo's artwork, and Wells is the second-best writer on the BND books, based on his first issue)
Batman Confidential #16 (Still kind of liking this story of the return of anti-Batman The Wrath)
Booster Gold #8 (It's full of continuity stuff that usually puts me off, but I've been won over by the fun factor of this book)
Criminal 2 #2 (Really damn dark, but an interesting counter read to Volume 2 #1)
Jesus Hates Zombies GN (C'mon, I have to at least look)
Resurrection #4 (Not as enthused as I was after the first issue, but still intrigued)
Terry Moores Echo #2 (Curious to see how this develops)
Wonder Woman #19 (Gail is really doing a great job on this book)
Wormwood Calamari Rising #3 (Probably going to enjoy it more in trade, but I'm still reading as it comes out)

Blog Update for March 2008

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.

DC made a big comeback this month in terms of comics my interest, partly due to a renaissance in the Batman satellite books thanks to Chuck Dixon and Peter Tomasi, partly due to a couple strong one-shots in the form of a New Frontier special and All-Star Superman and partly due to a couple strong miniseries in Suicide Squad and Teen Titans Year One. Throw in two Vertigo books, and DC makes up almost half of the Top 20 this month. Dark Horse and Marvel both tie for second place with five books each, and Image brings up the rear with two, a regular (Dynamo 5) and a new one (Dead Space). No indies this month, it was not a great month for indie publishers. Comics that didn't make the top 20 cut (but almost did) this month included the first issues of Wolverine First Class and Cable and the latest issues of X-Men First Class, Hack Slash, Invincible, Proof, Atomic Robo, BPRD 1946, Thunderbolts, Walking Dead, Wonder Woman and Northlanders.

I read a pretty decent amount of graphic novels this month, despite also taking a break to re-read the entirety of Hawkworld. Long story short on that one is that there are great moments and a few really good stories, but it didn't hold up to a re-read the way that Ostrander's Suicide Squad or Spectre does. Still pretty good stuff, though, just more uneven than I remembered it being. Anyway, graphic novels that didn't make the top 10 cut this month included three things that I picked up from the clearance table at the store (Sgt. Rock: Between Hell & A Hard Place, Salmon Doubts, Houdini The Handcuff King) and the uneven but occasionally very good anthology Discovered from the Savannah College of Art & Design. Also, I apparently didn't read any Marvel graphic novels this month, and only one DC (Blue Beetle, and I'm so sorry it took me this long to find out just how damn good this book is). I've also just started reading Kirby: King of Comics! by Mark Evanier, which is a good autobiography with amazing selections of Kirby artwork. Highly recommended based on the first two chapters and a skim through the rest for the art.

The strike is over, but TV is still very slowly returning, and there was actually less to watch this month than there was last. Mainly, I was all about Lost, which started off the fourth season with a couple of kickass episodes and, though they weren't all of that caliber, never really served up a stinker. Lost is definitely my favorite TV show running right at the moment. How I Met Your Mother also came back fairly strong, which was nice, and I can't wait for next month when we get the return of Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock and The Office. There may be others, but honestly, I think that's all that's returning that I'm really excited about.

Added a couple items to the RSS feed this month, including the webcomics Basic Instructions and Ctl-Alt-Del and the interesting social experiment site Post Secret.

Dear Internet....

I fucking hate April Fool's day, and pranks in general.

Tomorrow, you will be worse than useless. To anyone planning an April Fool's Day prank, fuck you and your ancestors and all future descendants.

Good day.

Weekly Comics to Come - April 2, 2008

TOP FIVE
Batman Grendel TP (This is awesome stuff from Matt Wagner... I actually own the contents already, but I'm still tempted by the trade)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #13 (Loved the last issue, not because of Buffy's new lesbian relationship but because of all the other character stuff going on and the return of Dracula)
Dead Space #2 (Great first issue, established mood and setting and characters, look forward to seeing where they take it from here)
Nightwing #143 (One of my favorite books at the moment, Tomasi and Morales are kicking ass on this book)
X-men First Class Tp Mutant Mayhem (Collecting the first few issues of Jeff Parker & Roger Cruz's fun early days X-Men book, plus the Colleen Coover backups, which are worth the price of admission all by themselves)

THE REST
Abe Sapien The Drowning #3 (Beautiful art, interesting story, BPRD spinoff stuff never disappoints)
Amazing Spider-Man #555 (Surprisingly, I kinda dug Bachalo's art on this book, and Well's script is solid too. Has it's issues, but it's probably the second best BND team after Guggenheim and Larocca)
Anna Mercury #1 (Ellis trots out some of his favorite pulp and sci-fi cliches. And I'll probably find it at least readable, as they're cliches I have some fondness for)
Cable #2 (Solid first issue, although I'm still wondering what Cable is doing in the future)
Logan #2 (Vaughan/Risso always worth a read, although I admit that my Logan in World War II Japan interest is low)
Secret Invasion #1 (I may wind up skimming it, just like I've done with every Bendis book I've tried to read since New Avengers #1, but it's Marvel's big event, so I need to give it a look just to stay up on things)
Walking Dead #48 (Really loving, and dreading, where this book is going in the lead-up to #50)
Young X-Men #1 (Intriguing and annoying by turns, it's probably just a nudge better than X-Force and not as good as Cable, as far as Divided We Stand launch books)

Politics Stuff

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and I differ on many issues. He's from Florida, so presumably he doesn't wish the entire state would be cut loose to go join Mexico or South America given the amount of crazy that they tend to inject into the nation. (Then again, I live in Texas... the saying about glass houses and throwing stones comes to mind). He is a booster of Hilary Clinton's run for office, and believes that the Florida votes should be counted as voted, even though all the candidates agreed not to campaign there (and then Clinton did).

However, Senator Nelson has earned my respect for this call to reform our election system. His ideas about popular vote vs. electoral vote, rotating which states primary/caucus when, adding early voting to every state and making sure voting machines have a paper trail seem like absolute necessities. Do I think this has a chance in hell of gathering support from an entrenched bunch of politicos who mostly benefit from a confusing and difficult electoral system? Well, no. But I at least respect him for trying.

And to see why I'll be voting for Clinton if she miraculously manages to land the nomination, even though it will physically hurt me to do so given how much better I believe Obama will be as President, read this excellent analysis of our two-party system from Smith Michaels over at Blurred Productions.

The Politics of Youtube

Obama:



McCain:


Hee hee hee.

Weekly Comics to Come - March 26, 2008

Not the best week of comics to close out March, actually.

TOP FIVE
All Star Superman #10 (With the Bizarro storyline over, this book is regaining my interest)
Flight Explorer Vol 1 TP (All-ages digest from the Flight creators)
Usagi Yojimbo #110 (Starting a new story, if I'm not mistaken... always a great read)
Wolverine First Class #1 (Fred Van Lente writing classic era Wolverine/Kitty Pryde... sounds great)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #10 (Cyclops gets the focus, and as I actually like Cyclops, that's a good thing)

THE REST
Batman Confidential #15 (Digging this Wrath story, actually... wish they'd reprint the original)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #11 (Van Lente's all-ages Iron Man continues to impress)
Previews Vol XVIII #4 (Down the Line is in the works)
Proof #6 (More gory, imaginative cryptozoology from Image)
Teen Titans #57 (I've enjoyed the last couple issues enough to keep reading)
World War Hulk Aftersmash Damage Control #3 (McDuffie brings the short-lived return to a close, and I've enjoyed it so far)

Weekly Comics to Come - March 19, 2008

TOP FIVE
Batman And The Outsiders #5 (*Love* the surprise guest stars in this one, and I'm digging Dixon's unpretentious superteam style)
Fables #71 (Cinderella in action, as good as I'd hoped)
Immortal Iron Fist #13 (Best issue in a while, love all the setup starting to pay off)
Incredible Hercules #115 (Nice stuff with Ares, Hercules, Amadeus, SHIELD... this is an awesome book)
Order #9 (One more issue... looks like we're gonna get an ending, it may not be a happy one... still great stuff)

THE REST
Angel After The Fall #5 (Kind of blah, actually. Like the characters, but I'm not as into this as I am Buffy, and that's despite Angel being my preferred show of the two)
Brave And The Bold #11 (Kind of fun Ultraman/Superman story, but I'm long since tired of the overlong Megistus story... I miss the more freewheeling, seemingly open stories of the first three or four issues)
Captain America #36 (Not quite sure I'm down with Cap shooting people, and it's getting a bit mopey for me... I'll give it a couple more issues to turn around)
Grendel Behold The Devil #5 (Another great issue, so good to see Wagner writing and drawing Hunter Rose again)
Hack Slash Series #10 (Pretty wicked little villains Seeley cooks up for this issue, given what it forces Cassie into... very good, as usual, and I'm loving the search for her father subplot)
Invincible #49 (The covers on solicits have given away a lot of the twists in this issue, but it's still a pretty solid read)
North World GN Vol 1 (New weird slice-of-life/fantasy book from Oni... need to give it a read)
Repo TP (Futuristic action/chase book from Rick Spears and Rob G... liked the first couple issues I read, looking forward to reading the rest)
Sandman Mystery Theatre TP Vol 6 Hourman And Python (More of the great pulp/crime and romance book from Vertigo)

A Mid-Level Adventure

If you're:

A) A Gamer

and

B) Have Ever Traveled By Plane

You will think this is awesome. If you're only one of the above, you'll probably still like it.

On Responsibility

You know, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. And while it's never a pleasant experience, if I've made a mistake, I try to own up to them.

So I'm somewhat puzzled by the last couple of days, where three of my business partners have experienced the same mysterious "You got screwed... but it's nobody's fault" problem. Apparently, there are all kinds of problems out there being caused by mysterious gremlins. Thus, there's no need to apologize for them or in any way make restitution. This is a miracle! Perhaps I need to apply this in my own life more. If I get in a car accident, I won't give my insurance information, I'll just speed away with a friendly wave. "Wasn't my fault, the gremlins did it!"

The minor one is that my payroll company's automated entry system (which has always been a touch squirrelly) didn't work over the weekend, and since they don't have 24-hour customer support, I had to wait until Monday morning to call in payroll. Since I don't think this delayed my payroll, this is a relatively minor issue... it was just the start of the problems that would plague this week.

Diamond Comics (you know, the guys with the monopoly on delivering all comics to everyone in North America?) has what some might call a minor problem with their shipping. That is, on occasion (and by on occasion, I mean every single week), they mis-ship something. Some books don't arrive, some extras do arrive, some are damaged. Most weeks, it's minor. Some weeks, you get something like what happened to me this week, where my entire order of Countdown to Final Crisis #7 was instead Batman Strikes. Which I don't sell a single copy of. In these cases, you can call your rep, as long as you get to them early enough, like before 11 AM, and they are supposed to get a direct ship order sent out so that you have your replacement copies in on Friday. Is that the same as having it on Wednesday? No. But it's a damn sight better than not having them at all.

So I call my rep, who tells me he'll get it taken care of. He's told me this three previous times with this kind of thing, with an issue of Green Arrow: Year One and a couple others that I can't remember. What I do remember is that in only one case did we actually get the books on Friday. On the others, it was Monday or later. So I am skeptical. But there's not much I can do but put my faith in him.

Whoops. Come Friday, no Countdown. I call, I am told "I put the order in, I don't know what happened." No offer to look into it, no "Sorry we screwed up not once but twice," just "Hey, wasn't my fault." Just me saying "So it should be here on Monday?" to which I am told "Yes, it should be." This does not fill me with confidence.

Monday arrives... see where this is going yet? No Countdown. I call again, and ask for a tracking number and an ETA. To his credit, it only takes 45 minutes for me to get a call back with a tracking number, and I am told it will arrive on Tuesday. As of now, I'm still waiting. I also tell him that I would like an explanation for what happened. Because I know this kind of thing will happen again.

Also on Monday, I discover that my other distributor, Baker & Taylor, has mysteriously canceled my large book order for the week. I discover this because I had happened to email my rep on a different matter, and she noticed it. No warning was sent out, if I hadn't lucked into it, I wouldn't have found out until after Friday, when I was wondering where on Earth my Baker & Taylor order was.

So I call in to Customer Service. They're baffled. It was canceled by financial services, they don't have any further information. I call financial services, leave messages on three different voice mails, but since they are on Mountain Time and it was late afternoon when I discovered this, they've gone home for the day.

The next day, they call work (and I'm at home) and I've left instructions to give them my cellphone number. They don't call my cellphone number. I call in to work, get the number for financial services, call them. I am told that they didn't cancel it, and I need to speak with customer service. This is not what you'd call a satisfactory answer, so I explain that customer service told me the exact same thing about financial services. I even tell them that I called my credit card company the day before, and they showed no charge from Baker & Taylor, no attempted charge and certainly nothing that would cause the card to decline. Nobody can figure out why the order was canceled. It's those damned gremlins again! So the gremlins are to blame for me not having books that I needed on Wednesday until Friday at the earliest.

No apologies are offered, and my inquiries about getting expedited shipping in exchange for the screw-up are ignored. As far as they're concerned, there's no need to make up for anything... they didn't do anything wrong! It was just those damned gremlins.

This is comics retail, folks. People on the Internet telling you that your job is obsolete and worthless, your business partners screwing up and not taking any blame, a constant battle with various little fires that need putting out.

And honestly, despite all the problems, I'd still rather be doing this than 99% of the other jobs out there.

But I would love to strangle those gremlins.

Tim Dickinson's Rolling Stone cover story on Obama

Tim Dickinson is easily my favorite political reporter writing right now. Yes, he's fully biased in favor of Obama, but more importantly, he's a sharp and entertaining writer. Check out his story on the Obama campaign at the Rolling Stone site.

Weekly Comics to Come - March 12, 2008

TOP FIVE
Abe Sapien The Drowning #2 (Beautiful art by Alexander, great story by Mignola)
Annihilation Conquest #5 (Awesome cover, plus more excellent space adventure)
DMZ #29 (Starts the new election story, the best issue in a while)
DMZ Vol 4 Friendly Fire TP (Collecting my favorite story arc of the series thus far)
Serenity Better Days #1 (Heists, banter and chases... yes!)

THE REST
Amazing Spider-Man #553 (Decent, but definitely the weakest of the Spidey teams thus far)
Atomic Robo #6 (A fun, action-packed, brain-punching finale to a fun series. Can't wait for more)
Booster Gold #7 (Kind of enjoying the out-of-time Booster/Beetle stuff... pretty sure it's going to end with a downer of Beetle being dead again, but if it doesn't, I'll be happy)
BPRD 1946 #3 (The early days of the BPRD, and I love the Russian demon/girl that has a pivotal role in this book)
Empowered Vol 3 TP (More of Adam Warren's borderline pervy, delightfully funny superhero parody)
Foundation #3 (Further development of the great conspiracy premise)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #9 (Leonard Samson vs. Hulk, courtesy of Paul Benjamin and co.)
Nova #11 (Dull cover by Maleev, but an interesting story of Nova meeting up with a favorite older character of mine)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #7 (Great action sequence, and although the Rustam/Flag stuff was probably better left buried, everything else is vintage Squad... I'll be picking up the trade)
Thunderbolts #119 (Solid, although I'm kind of glad Ellis is only here for a limited time, because I think I am too)
Walking Dead #47 (Jesus this book is getting dark... but it's got great action and great characters, and I'm fully involved again)
Wonder Woman #18 (WW versus the Khunds!)
Wormwood Vol 2 TP (Looking forward to the second trade of this twisted series by Ben Templesmith)
X-Factor #29 (Solid follow-up to the first Divided We Stand issue)

Blog Update for February 2008

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.

In terms of comics this month, my reading was much the same as it has been. Enough good single issues that everything didn't make the cut (including the final issue of American Virgin, the latest issue of Northlanders and a few others that were *almost* in there), and few enough graphic novels that two on my list were actually bought months ago but only read this month, and the two that nearly made my list were also older ones that have been sitting on my bookshelf, Scrap Mettle (Scott Morse's art book from Image) and Scorpion: Poison Tomorrow (from Marvel). My daughter loves the new Bakers, btw. She found it on my stack of comics, brought it out of my office and now I've read it to her at least twice and her grandfather (my dad) has read it to her at least once. Breaking down the comics, it was 5 Dark Horse (BPRD 1946 again, plus Abe Sapien, Grendel, Buffy and the final Umbrella Academy), 10 Marvel (a mixture of continuity and non-continuity, written by Brubaker, Fraction, Pak, Van Lente, Parker, Peter David and Abnett & Lanning), 3 DC (1 Vertigo, 1 out-of-continuity Teen Titans Year One and one in-continuity Nightwing that is untouched by the Countdown goings-on) and 2 indies (Jeff Smith's RASL, potential best new book of the year, and another solid issue of Mouse Guard from Archaia).

Not much time for TV this month. Finished out Friday Night Lights and wound up mostly underwhelmed... at this point, I hope it doesn't come back unless they can recapture that first season magic (which I'm not sure they can do, given all the extra baggage in every character's backstory now) and I certainly won't buy season two on DVD. Torchwood also got really dull and dumb, and Netflix sent me the third disc since I forgot to reorder my queue, but unless it winds up being tons better, I doubt I'll rent any more. Lost, however, continues to be spectacularly good, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles has grown on me. Although it's sci-fi on Fox, which means that no matter how great the ratings have been up to this point, it's probably doomed. I also watched the Justice League New Frontier animated movie... it's good, but mostly serves as a great trailer for the graphic novel, which has all the good moments of the movie plus tons of stuff that was cut out with the Losers, the Challengers of the Unknown, etc. Rent the DVD... buy the Absolute Edition of the graphic novel.

Only a couple new RSS feeds added this month. Added Starslip Crisis (after going back to read all the archives prior to moderating the webcomics panel at STAPLE!... more about STAPLE! when I get a little more free time to blog this week) and Yelp!'s Austin reviews, which are proving to be excellent in terms of pointing me to new restaurants I want to try but can't find the time, energy or money to get to.

Weekly Comics to Come - March 5, 2008

TOP FIVE
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #12 (New story arc begins... Oz rumored to guest star)
Dynamo 5 #11 (Another issue of one of my favorite superhero books)
Justice League The New Frontier Special (After watching the movie recently, I'm primed for a return to Darwyn Cooke's period piece Justice League)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 13 (Suspense manga continues to have me in its thrall)
Northlanders #4 (Gets better with each issue, and I have a little info on what's going to happen from Brian Wood, and I'm excited to see it)

THE REST
Cable #1 (Surprisingly good, art isn't perfectly matched to the script but it's a fun read)
Dead Space #1 (The Thing in space by Ben Templesmith and Antony Johnston? Sold!)
Highwaymen TP (One of my favorite action movies on paper ever)
Invincible Presents Atom Eve #2 (First issue was great, looking forward to seeing the conclusion)
Logan #1 (Vaughan and Risso means I will read, even if my Wolverine love is weak these days)
Nightwing #142 (Digging the Tomasi/Morales run so far)
North Wind #3 (More post-apocalyptic wintery stuff)
Terry Moores Echo #1 (Love Moore's art, can't wait to see him tackle something new)
Resurrection #3 (Guggenheim has impressed so far on Spidey, and his first two issues of this were very good as well)
Teen Titans Year One #3 (Beautiful art, and the story continues to draw me in)

Not A *Great* Day

Looks like Hilary won Ohio, and won the primaries in Texas too. So once again, my freakin' vote counts for nothing. On the other hand, my vote in the caucus might, because Obama is ahead in the caucus counting, but with only 5% reporting, that could go either way.

Still, he's ahead in the delegate count, and barring a *huge* shift in momentum that allows Clinton to start blowing out the remaining races, mathematically Obama is still going to win the nomination. But my deeply-held hope that: A) Texas would actually go for the candidate I voted for, for once and B) More importantly, losses in Texas and Ohio would force Clinton to concede so the Democratic party could get on to the important task of running against the Republicans have not come to pass. This race is going to come right down to the wire. I still believe Obama will be the candidate, I still believe he'll beat McCain, but I'm honestly tired of the fight.

But for the Hilary supporters amongst my readers (Hello Manton and wartortle), this was a good day. Congratulations to your candidate. I'm still hoping I don't have to vote for her in November, but she had a good day today.

Of course, the other downer today is that Gary Gygax, father of D&D, died today. D&D has changed a lot since he helped create it, and my enjoyment of the game today owes as much to guys like Bill Slavicek, Mike Mearls, David Noonan, Robin Laws and others as it does to anything Gygax has written for years. But without Gygax, the whole role-playing game thing, which has been a huge part of my life since I was 12 years old, probably never would have happened.

There have been a ton of tributes today, and I can't top any of them. So instead I'll link to my favorites, from Alex Robinson, Penny Arcade and my friend in gaming Nate Southard.

Was The Crazytown Park Not Available?

I know you don't get to choose your venue by name, but it is unfortunate that Obama had to hold a rally in Ohio at the Nutter Center.

Seriously, it sounds like a euphemism for "Mental Hospital."

Weekly Comics to Come - February 27, 2008

TOP FIVE
Fables #70 (Kicking off a story of Cinderella, Fable superspy)
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #3 (Long wait between issues, but totally worth it so far)
Proof #5 (Kickass cryptozoology comic continues to impress, one of Image's best series)
RASL #1 (New Jeff Smith about a dimension-hopping art thief, and I'm super-excited about it)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #9 (Black Widow, Jean Grey and Scarlet Witch team up in one of the best issues of the series so far)

THE REST
Angel After The Fall #4 (More twists and turns, can't wait to see where they're going after last issue's cliffhanger)
Captain America #35 (Still not entirely feeling the somewhat mundane Red Skull plot, but I am enjoying seeing Bucky struggle with Cap's legacy)
Criminal 2 #1 (Brubaker where he belongs, writing dark-as-hell crime noir)
Gravel #1 (Zero issue of this Hellblazer-by-way-of-special ops was pretty good)
House Of M Avengers #5 (A solid ending, disappointing only because the rest has been so spectacularly good for me)
Justice League New Frontier DVD (Very well animated, great voice cast, but it does miss a lot of the charm of the graphic novel.)
Many Adventures Of Miranda Mercury #295 (New sci-fi adventure series from Archaia and writer Brandon Thomas, who I've long been a fan of)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #10 (Iron Man vs. Spider-Woman. Nice.)
Marvel Zombies 2 #5 (Solid conclusion, but I can't believe they think there's more mileage in this concept)
Nearly Infamous Zango #1 (Slacker supervillainy by Austin local Rob Osborne)
Previews Vol XVIII #3 (Down the Line coming next week, unless STAPLE! and store inventory derail my productivity, which is entirely likely)
Thunderbolts International Incident (I'm a Gage fan, but it's becoming clear that without Ellis, the new version of Thunderbolts is a bit of a dud)
World War Hulk Aftersmash Damage Control #2 (Fun, and with a great last page reveal)
Wormwood Calamari Rising #2 (More strangeness and alien god invasions by Templesmith)
X-men Legacy #208 (New direction for this book, I'm intrigued to see exactly what the Xavier mind-trip thing is)

Do Not Vote For This Man

So Ralph Nader is going to run.

My response is one that would be filled with expletives. I voted for Nader instead of Gore, to my eternal regret. I would never do it again. And while I at first rejected the notion that he was a spoiler, I believe now that his entry into the race may have been what gave us Bush as President. I believe that he shares some culpability.

Especially since he's long since abandoned any pretense of trying to accomplish anything. Nader's big selling point in 2000 was that he was going to get enough votes to get federal funding for a third party, and to a guy so commonly disgusted with both parties, that sounded like a worthy goal.

This year, though? There's no way he's going to get that many votes. He's certainly not going to be President. And his issues are tarnished in importance when, instead of dealing with serious candidates, he puts in a Presidential bid that can only be viewed as helping the Republicans by drawing away votes.

Nader is running for his ego, and nothing more. He's tarnishing whatever good works he's done with these pathetic displays, and certainly I've lost a lot of the respect I once had for the man.

If I Weren't Married Already...

I'd want to marry Grassroots Mom for this article. It's *awesome* and really shows Obama's policy chops, which are even stronger than I'd suspected from my admittedly smaller amount of research.

If your biggest worry about Obama is that he hasn't accomplished anything, go and read this article. Grassroots Mom did her research into both candidates, and she breaks it down, and her support for Obama came *after* that, not before.

More about Obama

If you had told me, during the last two elections, where I was disenchanted with the candidates of both parties, that during the '08 election I would spend five hours outside, most of them just standing around waiting, putting off eating dinner and spending time with my wife and kids just to see a candidate for the Democratic nominee speak?

I would have thought you were nuts. But that's exactly what I did tonight. The last-minute news of Obama speaking at a rally in Austin on Friday got me to cancel my regular D&D game, leave work a bit early (good to be the boss, although I had to come in early as a consequence to get some stuff done) and drive downtown in rush hour traffic. Whereupon I stood in a line for two hours before being let into a big open area to stand around for three hours before seeing Obama speak for about an hour.

Totally worth it, btw. His speeches are good on da Interwebs, but they're frikkin' amazing when you're surrounded by tens of thousands of like-minded supporters, and you're about twenty feet away from the man, so that you can see amidst the polished speech and practiced speech-makings the sincerity and spontaneity that set him apart.

I came home with a lack-of-food headache that is only now, two hours later, finally going away. And I lost about eight hours of time that I could have used to catch up on TV or reading, spend time with friends or family or even just kicked back and played some XBox. And spending a ton of time crammed in like sardines with people is generally a painful experience for me, especially when some of the crowd were kind of obnoxious frat-boy types, but...

Totally worth it. Wish I could have managed to get to the front to shake his hand, but it was too much of a zoo, and I was tired and hungry and needed to pee (TMI? Sorry.)

Btw, have I mentioned how much I love John Rogers's political writing? Here's another reason why.

I'm Interviewed!

Interview with me about retailing by Greg Pak, over at Broken Frontier.

This is awesome

A takeoff on will.i.am's great Obama "Yes We Can" video... but with McCain.

Obama in Austin tomorrow

I'm going down to the rally tomorrow. Doors open at 6, speech starts at 9, I'm planning on getting there around 4. I know full well that this means I still might not be early enough to get in, but I have to work, and I have to try to get in.

If anybody else is going, drop me a line so we can maybe meet up and chat while we wait to get in or wait for Obama to speak.

A Little De-Bunking

There have been plenty of folks who have called Obama an empty suit, a charismatic speaker with no policies. The answer to that can be found on his website, where he outlines the issues and his plans for some of them. If you want more, read his book, The Audacity of Hope, which is as good as his speeches, but because of its nature, offers a lot more policy and procedural specifics as well.

Then there's Dave Sim. Semi-famous for creating the 300-issue self-published opus Cerebus, more famous for fucking up that opus with increasingly paranoid rants about the feminist-homosexual axis. Here's a well-researched essay by Smith Michaels over at Blurred Productions explaining why Sim is full of it.

Thank You, Wisconsin!

Obama Wins Wisconsin.

Hibbs Brings The Statistics Hammer to the Fight

There are those on the Internet who, despite never having worked in a direct market shop and quite possibly having dropped off even shopping in them for quite some time, feel qualified to make assessments about the health of the direct market, how much better the bookstore and Internet bookseller market is and how the direct market is a dinosaur on its way out.

Brian Hibbs, a longtime retailer in San Francisco, brings out the Bookscan charts to put the lie to this particular fallacy. This is pretty intense number-crunching reading, but if you want to see just how well graphic novels do in bookstores versus the direct market, check out this article.

Here's a hint: The Direct Market sells more than the bookstores in just about every category. And the art comics that some like to claim are what more folks want to read don't sell any better in bookstores than they do in the Direct Market. And superhero continuity books seem to do pretty damn well in the bookstore market and the direct market.

And... well, just read the article. Suffice to say, some Internet pundits (I won't name any names or drop any initials) don't really know what the hell they're talking about.

Guardians of the Galaxy

The creative team of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy series spills a few beans, including dropping a little glee bomb for Nova fans by revealing the home base of the new team.

I can't wait for this book. I'm anticipating it more than anything else Marvel or DC are doing for the whole first half of 2008. Go read the interview and see why, then make sure and pick it up when it comes out.

Weekly Comics to Come - February 20, 2008

TOP FIVE
The Atheist Vol 1 TP (More under-rated, imaginative spooky stuff from the mind of Phil Hester, with John McCrea on art)
Grendel Behold The Devil #4 (Loving the return of Wagner on Grendel)
Incredible Hercules #114 (Fantastic cliffhanger ending, great Black Widow/Hercules stuff, this book is great)
The Order #8 (Great, great issue... goddamnit, why did this book have to get cancelled?!)
Zorro #1 (Matt Wagner writes, Francavilla draws, Randy reads)

THE REST
Amazing Spider-Man #551 (I can't believe how much I'm digging Guggenheim's Spidey, but I'm really into it at the moment)
Batman And The Outsiders #4 (Just good solid DC universe action without the continuity porn)
Batman Confidential #13 (The Wrath, a.k.a. anti-Batman, returns with creator Mike W. Barr at the helm)
Brave And The Bold #10 (Slowly losing interest as the stories get more fractured and the cast gets bigger, but... when it's on, it's really on)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye TP (The latest and best of the Fear Agent stories)
Hack Slash Series #9 (Lesbian blood-drinking college cultists and the sexy slasher slayers who kill them... next on Oprah)
Immortal Iron Fist Orson Randall Green Mist Death (Great little pulp-style one-shot, just like the annual)
Invincible #48 (I honestly don't remember what all is going on in this book, but I know I've been digging it)
The Order Vol 1 Next Right Thing (Honestly, with the cancellation, I decided not to pick up the trade... might change my mind if it ends strong or leads strongly into Fraction's Iron Man)
Superman Confidential #12 (Clay Moore and Phil Hester on the origin of Jimmy's signal watch, plus Superman vs. Mexican wrestlers)
Transformers Spotlight Vol 2 TP (Weirdly psyched to read these, the last one was a lot of fun)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #6 (Can it all make sense, or will it just be a beautiful mess?)
World War Hulk Aftersmash Warbound #3 (Losing track of the characters a bit, but great art and some interesting moments)
Youngblood #2 (First issue was... OK. Really needed great. But I'll give it another chance to impress.)

Tribute to Stephane Peru

I don't usually do a ton of linkblogging, mostly because when I'm reading through my links I forget to just come back and post them here. But it seems worth noting that Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Khoi Pham, Mark Paniccia and Nate Cosby have a tribute to the late Stephane Peru, a young colorist who recently died. You can find the column, although with some samples of his work, at BrokenFrontier.com.

Texas - Make or Break for Clinton

OK, Texas Democrats (or independents who are going to vote in the primaries), I need to chat with you, if you're reading my blog. Everybody else can listen in, but I'm really talking to the Texas folks here.

Our votes don't usually count. We all know that we're in a red state, and our vote in the election will almost certainly go to the Republican candidate. We're late in the primaries, where the decision has usually been made.

This year, we're not just affecting the decision, we're crucial to it. The Clinton camp is *counting* on Texas to stop the momentum Obama has gained by sweeping the last batch of primaries.

And I am counting on you to help me finally make my vote resonate with the actual results of voting. Just this once. If Texas can actually go for Obama, I will do a gleeful dance of joy.

So... if any of you are on the fence, or supporting Hilary but interested in hearing why I support Obama and think you should too, if I can sway you to vote for Obama in the Texas primaries... please, post in the comments or feel free to come and talk to me at my shop. This is supremely important to me, and I'm happy to talk about why.

Blog Update for January 2008

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.

The writer's strike is over, so my favorite TV shows will return, although it's a pretty sad and pathetic little list at the moment, so not this month. Right now I'm enjoying Torchwood (season 1 on DVD), Friday Night Lights (I haven't seen the last three eps, but by all accounts it got better and more than likely won't come back, so I'll go ahead and finish it out), The Sarah Connor Chronicles (even if I'm not wild about it, I'm engaged enough to watch) and Lost (the first two episodes of season four were great and amazingly jaw-droppingly mind-blowing, respectively).

In comics, Marvel sort of ran away with my favorites again, with 9 of the Top 20. Of course, one of those is a cancelled book, three are miniseries and one is a one-shot, so I'm still unsure about their 2008 prospects. DC has 4, 2 Vertigo (both books that are ending or over), 1 out-of-continuity (The Spirit, also over, at least for me) and 1 out-of-continuity DC Universe (a limited series). So Marvel still has the edge in terms of shared superhero universes for me. As far as the other 7 books, there are 2 Image (Dynamo 5 and Fell), 2 Dark Horse (Buffy and Grendel) and then 1 each from Devil's Due, IDW and Boom! Almost making the cut this month were 2 Dark Horse (BPRD 1946 #1 and Usagi Yojimbo #109), 1 Boom! (North Wind #1), 1 Image (Proof #4), 1 Red 5 (Atomic Robo #4), 1 Adhouse (Johnny Hiro #3), 1 Vertigo (Northlanders #2) and three Marvel (Captain America #34, Fantastic Four #553 and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #9).

Most of my leisure time that would have been spent blogging, reading comics and watching TV has gone to playing Rock Band and Burnout Paradise on the XBox 360. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Scott Dunbier, Storyteller

I propose that during the San Diego Comicon, Scott Dunbier should have some kind of panel where he tells stories from his days as an art dealer. I know I'd be glued to my seat.

For an example of why, read this hilarious story of an exchange with Klaus Janson.

Then go read the rest of his blog. You won't be sorry.

Weekly Comics to Come - February 6 & 13, 2008

Wow, I've been really bad keeping up with these, and I still haven't done the monthly update for January, either. Soon, I hope.

TOP FIVE
American Virgin #23 (The final issue. *sob* Really sad to see this go, really excited to see the ending)
Battle Royale Ultimate Ed HC Vol 2 (Hooray! More ultraviolence! And sex! I've read all of this before, of course, but I'm glad to get it in swanky hardcover form)
Jellaby Vol 1 TP (New all-ages full-color graphic novel by Kean Soo, right on the heels of Kazu Kibuishi's impressive Amulet Vol. 1)
Nova Annual #1 (Loving Nova, looking forward to seeing the artists here, but hoping that Mahmud Asrar doesn't leave Dynamo 5 to go to Marvel full-time)
X-Factor #28 (Fantastic issue, has moved me from casual reader to follower of the title)

THE REST
Atomic Robo #5 (More fun science + punchy action with really nice art)
Bprd 1946 #2 (Ditto, only set in World War II)
DMZ #28 (Kind of ready for a longer arc, but these one-shots have been interesting at least)
Foundation #2 (Conspiracy based on following Nostradamus's theories. I really loved the first issue, and I'm anxious to see the follow-up)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #6 (Wish I loved this more, but I'm still reading it, at any rate)
Tiny Titans #1 (Unbelievably cute all-ages elementary school teen titans book)
X-Force #1 (Surprisingly decent action comic)

Comics for February 5, 2008

TOP FIVE
Fables #69 (Fantastic ending of the best story of the series thus far)
Amulet Vol 1 Stonekeeper (Beautiful and engaging new all-ages adventure/fantasy comic from Kazu Kibuishi and Scholastic)
Abe Sapien The Drowning #1 (Stunning Jason Alexander art, intriguing story of Abe's first solo field work)
Annihilation Conquest #4 (Continues to be awesome cosmic spectacle with great character work as well)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #11 (Another strong Whedon issue introducing the big bad and featuring more great Xander/Buffy stuff)

THE REST
Darkness #2 (Decent follow-up, I remain mildly interested)
Nightwing #141 (Very good foundation issue for the new creative team)
Northlanders #3 (Best issue of the Viking story so far)
Teen Titans Year One #2 (Loved this one, spectacular art by Kerschl)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #10 (9-11 and a marriage proposal... big stuff in this issue!)
Uncanny X-Men #495 (Pretty solid first issue of the post-Messiah Complex run)
Warhammer Forge Of War #5 (Nice doomed ending)
Bakers Babies & Kittens HC (Fun, if lightweight, with great cartooning)
Batman False Faces HC (Early Vaughan work on Batman, pretty good stuff)
Jumper Jumpscars TP (Prequel to the upcoming film, but I found myself hard-pressed to care about the characters, and Hurtt's artwork wasn't as spectacular here as it was on The Damned)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol 2 Digest (Stealth armor, space armor and great stories in this all-ages Iron Man tome)
Gyakushu Vol 2 (Action manga from the art half of Amazing Joy Buzzards)
Pantheon High Vol 2 (Second volume of the gods in high school story by Paul Benjamin)

The Writers' Strike - Over?

It looks like the strike may be over.

I'm just not sure that's a good thing.

Because it looks like there was a long, painful slog that hurt just about everybody and wound up with an only incrementally better deal. It looks like essentially the corporations did exactly what they wanted to do and gave up the tiniest amount because to fight for a truly fair deal is basically impossible against their deep pockets.

I don't think that the arguments for why the WGA should (and probably will) take the deal are wrong, but it's disillusioning at least to see that, in the end, money and greed basically won out over principles and togetherness. (By which I mean the greedy bastards at the AMPTP won out over the WGA, not that the writers have somehow chosen money over principles... because if they were gonna do that, there never would have been a strike.)

I hope I'm just misreading and that the agreement is much better than it looks, but it looks like a lot of people were put out of work, lost their deals, lost months' worth of income for a pittance worth of minimal gains.

Mostly, I just hope it's not a preview of what's going to happen this election season. But with Obama sweeping today's primaries and caucuses, things are looking up. Now I just hope my fellow Texas democrats don't disappoint me.

Mind. Blown.

Damn, but Lost was great tonight.

I'm dying for more. And hoping there's an end to the strike so that we can get more than 8 episodes this season.

More Politics

Barack Obama gave a speech in New Orleans. Full text is here, partial video is here:



I'm angry about a lot of things the Bush Administration has done, from the Iraq War to the Patriot Act to the creation of the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security. But nothing made me angrier or more frustrated than what happened in New Orleans. If I ever talk to George W. Bush (yeah, that's likely) that is the first thing I will ask him. Aren't you ashamed? Don't you have trouble sleeping after all the people who died, after a great city was nearly destroyed, helped in large part by your incompetence and the incompetence of the people in your administration?

Also, the link is to a left-skewing site, so take analysis with a grain of salt, but apparently John McCain skipped out on the vote for the economic stimulus package. Didn't vote yes, didn't vote no, skipped out to avoid making a decision or a statement on one of the few things Congress has accomplished in recent years. I said recently that if it came down to McCain or Clinton, I'd vote McCain. I now know that to be passing insanity. I'll vote independent, McCain is no longer even remotely deserving of my respect or my vote.

New Podcast

As part of my role with STAPLE!, I've done a short series of interview podcasts with a few folks who are coming to the show. The first one just went up on iTunes, and here are the details and links:

Very excited to announce a brand spanking new feature of the STAPLE! website - STAPLE! Podcasts!

In this first episode Randy Lander of Comic Pants and Rogues Gallery Comics & Games talks to Fred Van Lente, author of Action Philosophers and a brand new work, Comic Book Comics, a comic book history of comics, which will be making its world premiere at STAPLE!

We'll be posting a new podcast every week, so be sure to keep checking back. Upcoming episodes include Danielle Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots) and featured guest Brian Wood!

iTunes users can subscribe to STAPLE! Podcasts using this link.

All podcasts graciously recorded by the studios of Dial A Stranger: When you don't know who to turn to, turn to who you don't know. http://dialastranger.com/

I Got My Hotel Room

I guess I'm going to San Diego this year. Kind of surprised, because I thought there was no way I was getting a hotel room. But after frustration with the busy phones and a near-miss using Firefox, I saw a tidbit about using Internet Explorer on The Beat comments thread, and 15 minutes later, I had my room booked.

I'm at my favorite hotel that I've stayed at (OK, favorite affordable hotel, the Holiday Inn on the Bay) and though I was tempted to go for the more expensive but swankier Embassy Suites or Hard Rock Hotel, the extra cost was just too much for what essentially boils down to a place to sleep and a place to leave my stuff.

Now I have to see if I can find a roommate to help split the costs... or decide if I want to just pay the whole thing myself and have a room to myself, like I did a couple years ago.

But this is good news, I really didn't think it would be as (relatively) easy as it was.

Yes We Can

Tomorrow is either going to be a really good day, or a really bad day, for me and other Obama supporters.

But I *want* to believe it's possible that there's going to be a candidate I'm excited about for the first time ever. And for right now, at least, I do.

Why I Can't Call Myself A Bleeding Heart Liberal

I am, in many ways, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. Free speech, universal healthcare, tolerance of all race, sexual orientation, religion (OK, I get a little squidgy around religion, but I wouldn't *ban* it or anything), a helpful welfare/unemployment system, etc.

I've even come around on capital punishment. I used to be for it, for the most part, and I still believe that some crimes are punishable by death, but our system is so flawed in execution that it's not able to provide such punishments in anything close to a just manner, and too many intelligent people I respect are diehard against capital punishment, and so I find myself having to ignore my own instincts in this one area and decide that yeah, capital punishment is probably a bad idea.

But I've still got just a touch of right-wing, eye for an eye type thing in me. Because when I see something like this:

Death Sentence in Afghanistan for disseminating a report criticizing Islam

And I see that the response from Reporters Without Borders is a statement, and others are organizing a petition to plead with the barbaric, ignorant pig-fuckers that passed the sentence in the first place, all I can think is: "Uh, why don't we take up a collection and hire some mercenaries to bust this kid out and bring him to America? Wouldn't that be better than writing a letter?"

Of course, that also begs the question of why the enormous numbers of troops we have over there aren't doing exactly that. Because if they're not, then it looks like the U.S. Government supports this sentence. And I don't care what kind of diplomatic fuss it might cause, if we're allowing this kind of shit to go on, we might as well not be there.

Thus ends Randy's "thoroughly uninformed and simplistic views on foreign policy."

Shoplifter Update

They came in on Thursday night, two days after making off with somewhere between three and six volumes of Battle Royale. They had one other girl with them who had not been with them the last time. And the employee who was there walked up, told them "We've been having trouble with stealing, and we think it was you. Get out and don't come back."

The one who hadn't been with them protested, but the others didn't say a word. They knew they were caught, and they knew that my employee had snapped photos of them on his cellphone so that if we have any further trouble, we can quite easily identify them for the cops.

Problem solved. It would have been more satisfying to catch them in the act, and when reordering volumes 1-11 of Battle Royale tonight (aside from 2 and 7, which are frustratingly unavailable at the moment) I gritted my teeth, but it's nice to have it dealt with so quickly.