The Belated Sketch Post

Turns out, it's been a while since I posted any sketches online. I haven't posted any of the sketches I got from STAPLE! '08 or anything but Katy's sketches from San Diego '08, and it's time for sketches from STAPLE! '09. So, without further ado, the additions to my sketchbook, my theme sketchbook (Pirates, Monkeys, Ninjas and/or Robots) and Katy's sketchbook from the last year and a half.

San Diego '08










STAPLE! 08




STAPLE! '09

Goodreads Review: Starman Omnibus Vol 2

The Starman Omnibus Vol. 2 by James Robinson

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
After re-reading this recently, I think that this book, only about twenty issues into the series' run, might represent the pinnacle of Starman. Which is not to say that the rest of the run is bad (although I am in the camp that views Tony Harris as the definitive Starman artist, even if he wasn't the artist for the majority of the series' run), but just that I don't know if it ever got as good as the stories in this issue.

The "Sand and Stars" arc which showed us the modern day Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont from Sandman Mystery Theatre was a terrific conclusion, of sorts, to the romance and adventure that those two shared throughout the Wagner/Seagle series. Robinson tended to be a little too in love with the Golden Age characters in some ways, with a need to "real them up" (witness the unfortunate decision to add an extramarital affair for Ted Knight and Black Canary), but with Wes and Dian, that whole vibe really works, given that Seagle and Wagner had given them much the same treatment. "Sand and Stars" feels like a good homage to the pulp adventures of Sandman Mystery Theatre, and in many ways, Starman was the descendant of that book... hip enough to attract the more indie-minded, but knowledgeable about the superhero continuity it was working with and with an appreciation for that as well.

One of my all-time favorite stories, the Christmas story, is also in this one. It's always brought a tear to my eye, and re-reading it for the fifth or sixth time here had the same effect.

Even the Shade stories, which tended to be a little self-indulgent as they went on, were pretty good here. Shade turning down Neron's offer was a nice little snap at DC's editorial dictates and one of DC's most underwhelming crossovers (and crossover villains). Shade teaming up with Dr. Fate was a lot of fun. And Shade being the one left to tell children tales of the dead earth was a great tie-in to another mostly terrible editorial remit, the "Tales of the Dead Earth" annuals. Robinson is one of those writers who generally took an editorial idea that mostly weakened other books, acting as a straightjacket, and used it as a springboard, a writing challenge, to create something different, in line with the theme, but perfectly in line with the book.

There's also another terrific "Talking With David" issue, the "Times Past" with Mikaal in the '70s, the three-part tale of Shade, the O'Dares and Jack Knight taking on Merritt, the immortal with a demon poster... it really is like a "best of" for the series, when everyone started to hit their stride.

Though they aren't the only artists represented here, Harris and Von Grawbadger do the bulk of the art, and their work here is phenomenal.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Comics - March 25, 2009

Caped #1 (I have to admit, another deconstructionist/humorous take on superheroes didn't really sound like my thing, but this story of the executive assistants to superheroes is kind of fun)

Captain America #48 (A relatively optimistic finale to the most recent three-parter)

GI Joe Origins #2 (Y'know, I'm as big a GI Joe fan as you'll find, but I'm having real trouble following the story here. I can't quite sort out what's supposed to be going on, and I'm only about half-certain who most of the characters are at any given time)

Guardians of the Galaxy #12 (Much stronger than the previous issue, although there's a lot of hand-waving and power shifting and such, it's a pretty satisfying resolution that ties into Nova)

Incredible Hercules #127 (Great stuff, as always... I know it's not coming, but I keep hoping for some swanky omnibus of all the Pak/Van Lente Hercules stuff)

The Incredibles Family Matters #1 (Mark Waid nails it. I loved the Incredibles movie, and Waid does a terrific follow-up that is perfect all-ages superheroes, with spectacular artwork from Marcio Takara. Boom! takes a great license and turns out a great book, which is sure to be one of my favorites for the year)

The Muppet Show #1 (Roger Langridge on The Muppet Show, which is by turns weird, funny and sweet, capturing the vibe of the show with a fresh spin for its new medium... all the praise is well-deserved.)

Nova #23 (Richard Rider on Earth turns out to be pretty interesting, and I liked the reveals on Dr. Necker and the twists that lead to the cover image)

Star Wars Legacy #34 (After the diversion on Mon Calamari, it's back to the main story, which reminds me why I like the book so much. It's a bit melodramatic, but Duursema's art is terrific, and Ostrander is telling a pretty sweeping story that keeps with the Star Wars feel nicely)

Superman #686 (Y'know, I'm re-reading Starman in omnibus form right now, and Superman just doesn't compare. We spent an entire issue setting up Mon-El's secret identity? Really?)

Thunderbolts #130 (T-Bolts has a streak of dark humor, but Deadpool's wacky shtick is kind of a weird fit for the book, and Bong Dazo's artwork, while good, is more inline with the McGuinness school of art that defined Deadpool than the Deodato-style that has defined T-Bolts. In other words, an OK issue, but one of the weaker ones)

Umbrella Academy #5 (Vampires and giant mummies in Vietnam, a plot to time travel and make sure Kennedy's assassination goes as planned, some of the weirdest superpowers ever... this book is trippy, beautiful and fantastic)

Usagi Yojimbo #119 (Usagi and his allies vs. a demon sorcerer and zombie samurai. Awesome.)

Just A Thought...

I'd been watching the steadily declining sales of Green Arrow/Black Canary, and reading something about Hawkman, along with the general discussion I've had with various folks at the store about how "resting" a character for a while can result in big sales (witness JMS's Thor, Kevin Smith's Green Arrow, etc.) and I came up with this:

Cancel the currently underperforming Brave and the Bold series, relaunch it as a new number one:

Brave and the Bold starring Green Arrow and Hawkman.

You could do the liberal/conservative road trip thing ala Green Arrow/Green Lantern with a character whose politics more easily fit into the conservative mold than Green Lantern, who always felt forced into the "establishment stiff" role in some way. You'd get two really popular characters who always seem to struggle on their own, but together, might be a pretty good pairing in terms of fanbase. Put 'em on a tour of the DC Universe, ala the Brubaker/Stewart Catwoman story. Have them re-join the Justice League when sales start fading to give it a boost. Bring in Black Canary, the Atom, Green Lantern and all their friends for one-off stories.

Ideal writer for this would be John Rogers, but he's busy with Leverage. Then there's Geoff Johns, but he's busy with writing everything else in the DC Universe. Definitely keep Winick and Willingham way the hell off of it, when they mix politics and the DCU you get the dull, plodding, borderline nonsensical "DC Decisions."

Anyway, just a thought. Not that I expect this to happen or anything, but just thought it would be kind of interesting.

Weekly Comics - March 18, 2009

GI Joe Cobra #1 (Wow, that was a really cool, different take on G.I. Joe, focusing on an undercover agent infiltrating Cobra. Probably the best IDW Joe book so far)

Groom Lake #1 (Wacky, strange, beautiful art, pretty much what you'd expect from Ryall and Templesmith)

Punisher #3 (I hate what's been done to The Hood, and this issue is at least half about the Hood, which makes it my least favorite of the series thus far. On the other hand, the art's still great, and I love the hacker-Punisher teamwork)

Uncanny X-Men #507 (As a retailer, I have to ask... why the hell did every X-Book, including *both* main X-Men books, come out today instead of spreading them out? As a fan, I have to ask? A "Warren" suit? Really? And Dr. Nemesis continues to need a good crotch-punching. But... this is still pretty fun stuff, and akin to the Morrison X-Men, a different flavor for the team while still feeling like X-Men)

X-Men Legacy #220 (This really reminds me of the late '80s/early '90s X-Men that I enjoyed, and I'm even liking the use of Whedon's lame "Danger" villain)

Added to Blogroll: Runners

I've done reviews in the past of Sean Wang's excellent sci-fi adventure comic Runners, and I was super-excited when it was announced as coming out, in full color, from Archaia.

Bad news? That didn't work out. Good news? It's because Wang is running the whole series, from the beginning, as a webcomic. Get onboard and check this out, it's fantastic stuff that more people should definitely read. And if you've already read Runners, Wang is doing commentary on the pages as he goes, so there's still new stuff.

Added to Blogroll: Artists!

A frequently-updated sketchblog from a variety of talented creators, including Cameron Stewart, Andy Belanger, J. Bone, Karl Kerschl and host Ramon Perez featuring sketches of girls. Sexy girls, regular girls, all kinds of girls, all done by great artists.

Also added, from STAPLE!

Evan Bryce, artist on President Awesome, who runs his own frequently-updated art blog that is full of great images. Bryce has a cool style that reminds me a little bit of what I love about Kristian Donaldson's work.

Monica Gallagher, artist of Gods and Undergrads and Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five, a terrific artist who I met at this year's STAPLE!

Kennon James, another artist I met this year at STAPLE!, whose "C is for Carnage" print and Funky Fish Book were some of the things I picked up.

And I would have added Nick Derington, but he hasn't updated since December... go look at his Flickr collection, though... the dude is a badass artist, on top of being a really nice guy.

Weekly Comics for March 11, 2009

Action Comics #815 (Better than expected, in large part due to Eddy Barrows' excellent art, but I still don't particularly care about these characters, and I feel like I missed a lot of backstory that might have helped... am I supposed to recognize Nightwing and/or Flamebird's true identities? Or are they just random Kryptonians?)

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1 (I have to admit, I'm impressed. Daniel does some nice work with Robin, Nightwing, even bratty Damian, and sells a near-apocalyptic Gotham that is like a cross between No Man's Land and Knightfall. That means there's bad to go along with the good, and it's not new territory, but it's interesting enough)

BPRD The Black Goddess #3 (How does this series keep getting better? It should be impossible, but the big old army vs. frog creature war, interspersed with more origin material for the bad guy, is beautifully drawn and fascinating to read)

Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns (Finally got around to reading this, and it's a good opener. Love the Sinestro/Hal dynamic, like the sinister scarred Guardian, like the oh-so-metal Red Lanterns... still find Cowgirl immeasurably boring as a supporting character, even if only on a page or two)

GI Joe #3 (The two-issue slow build gives way to an action-packed third issue, which is my favorite of the new series thus far)

Green Lantern Corps #34 (Jumped in after reading Green Lantern and while I don't recognize all the characters (boy could this book use a headshot roster ala the Legion), there's some pretty interesting stuff going on here, nice side-plot to the Red Lantern story)

Guardians of the Galaxy #11 (I love the cosmic action, but I can't stand the Starlin-esque cosmic mumbo-jumbo, and this issue is mostly about that. Drax's brand of snark, and the level of craft Abnett & Lanning have, keep it from sinking, but this is the first off issue of the book for me)

The Walking Dead #59 (Goddamn, but this is a dark book! Still fascinating reading, though, and a terrific action sequence this issue)

Obama's Weekly Address

Gotta admit, we're more than a month in, and I still love that Obama is our President.

STAPLE! 2009

I dropped off Twitter for a day because I have an iPod Touch, not an iPhone, so I couldn't Twitter the show. It was a great one, though. Rambling post ahead.

We co-sponsored with Austin Books to bring in Jeffrey Brown and Stan Sakai, and I helped run Stan's table most of the day. We did a brisk business... Stan sold out of almost everything he brought, I sold out of about 80% of the Usagi graphic novels I bought. Including a pretty sizable number of volume ones and a way too small number of Art of Usagi. Two shows in, I'm still learning how to order for STAPLE!

Oh, and the food, by Mike Barnes, was awesome. I had a chicken and sausage gumbo for lunch, a cuban sandwich for, uh, let's call it lunch part two and another cuban sandwich for, uh, we'll call that "pre-dinner." Seriously awesome food.

Pre-party at Austin Books was fun as usual. Every time I go there (which is generally once a year for the STAPLE! party) it looks all the more impressive. The new glass doors are particularly swanky, but I'm always just floored by the deep stock that Brad's got at that shop. I'm proud of Rogues Gallery, but Austin Books always does make me feel a little bit tiny by comparison.

What I love about the pre-party, and STAPLE! in general, is that I get to feel like I have this huge group of friends. I know a ton of people in this community, both local and not, and although I never see them more than once a year, that once a year is always a blast.

Post-pre-party (labored time description, I know), a bunch of us wound up at T&S Seafood, which I didn't know stayed open until 1 AM. Nick Derington's wife Tonya stunned us all by ordering for the table, and getting a great selection of traditional favorites along with Peking Duck, Salt and Pepper Shrimp (with shell on, and now that I've had that I'll never eat it the other way again) and a bunch of other stuff. For $20 each, we all got stuffed.

Dean Trippe stayed with me for his first STAPLE!, and he seemed to have a great time. I got to spend a fair amount of time at the Live Art show hanging out with Kristian Donaldson and Jason Murphy, two friends I've had for a while, plus a lot of time chatting with Kristin Hogan, who is just super-cool and fun. I also met a bunch of new people and discovered a bunch of new artists. I really dug hanging out with and getting art from Evan Bryce and Monica Gallagher, and I loved the stuff I picked up from Kennon James. And she's a longtime friend who I never get to see enough at these things, but I loved hanging out a little with Danielle Corsetto, and got to pick up the second book of Girls With Slingshots.

Oh, btw, I did podcast interviews for STAPLE! that are up on the STAPLE! site, and guested on the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen (or LEOG) podcast over at Spill in advance of the show... anyone who dug the Comic Pants podcast should listen to the crazed rambling of the LEOG show, which in this case was focused on Daredevil and STAPLE! If you liked the Comic Pants podcast, you'll like the LEOG 'cast. I may be guesting on a few more down the road, if I can find the time and the LEOG guys don't wise up and rescind the invitation.

I bought two pieces of live art (one from Stan, one from Monica) and a few prints, and those will all go up around the store in the next week or two, as I get time to frame them. It was a great show, and I'm sad that it's over for another year, but glad I don't have to do anything more in regards to planning or making sure things are done on my end for another year either. :)

Weekly Comics - March 4, 2009

Agents of Atlas #2 (Honestly, the Dark Reign setup is feeling a bit weird for this book, and the flashback/modern-day inter-mixed structure is weirding me out a bit too. I still really like it, but I don't love it the way I did the miniseries)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #23 (I loathe the character of Andrew. And I don't honestly know who the rogue slayer was supposed to be. So I found this to be a weaker issue of the series. Still better than the nonsensical future-speak of Whedon's last arc, though)

Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1 (Read this one on a recommendation from D3, and kind of liked it. On one hand, I'm tired of writers having to justify Reed's out-of-character Civil War/Illuminati behavior, but on the other, it's nice to see him being the humanitarian thinker, and I do love super-confident Sue Storm and big 'ol super-science stuff)

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #4 (A phenomenally good issue, with beautiful art by Fegredo and a great Baba Yaga backup with art by Guy Davis... but a months-long (at least three?) break halfway through the miniseries? What the hell, Dark Horse?)

Hulk #10 (Read this on a recommendation from Dan Grendell, and he's right... it's fun. Silly, a little stupid, but with great art by McGuinness and a cool, pop superhero comics premise)

Hulk: Broken Worlds #1 (Not really enough space for any of the stories to shine, and there are some clunky moments, especially in Peter David's story, an abrupt ending, notably in Van Lente's story and some weird, hard-to-follow art from Diego LaTorre. Passable, but sorta forgettable)

Killer of Demons #1 (Chris Sims is right. This book is a hell of a lot of fun.)

New Avengers: Reunion #1 (This was... not bad. But I have a huge fondness for Hawkeye and Mockingbird, and I'm not wild about these new, more paranoid versions of them. Interesting art from David Lopez, but the inks and colors make it look a lot different from his Fallen Angel or Catwoman work, more like the Luna Brothers, and honestly? I prefer the other stuff)

Punisher #2 (Wow, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a Punisher book this much. Remender does a great job of making him the Punisher, recognizable as the driven, dangerous guy from the Ennis books, but very definitely in the Marvel Universe. Opena's art is stunning. And I love the new "Microchip" character. One of my favorite reads of the week, even though I'm almost a month late in getting to it)

Secret Warriors #2 (Not really digging the whole "Hydra secretly runs SHIELD" thing, or uber-evil-for-evil's sake Von Strucker, but... Nick Fury as pissed-off ex-spy on a tear is interesting, and Caselli's art is really nice)

Spider-Man & Human Torch: Bahia De Los Muertos! (Fun, inventive, beautifully illustrated, these Beland/Doe one-shots are a treat, and I hope we'll get more of them in the future)

Superman: World of New Krypton #1 (I think the whole "Superman not in the Superman books" is a horrendous idea, and Robinson's been off his game for a while now, but... this is an OK first issue. Gives Superman a new playground without downplaying that he's still a superhero, even surrounded by others with his powers. I'm not sure I'm interested in twelve issues of this, and I'm certain it's not my ideal Superman story, but I'm interested in at least one more)

War of Kings #1 (Great opener. I'm not a huge fan of the Inhumans or the Shi'ar, but Abnett & Lanning serve up another action-packed opener to a big cosmic miniseries, and this feels as promising as Annihilation Conquest did)

X-Men First Class Finals #2 (Pretty neat transition miniseries, as Parker bids farewell to his take on the X-kids, and inserts a little story around things like Scarlet Witch joining the Avengers, Beast going to work for Brand, etc.)

Goodreads Review: Atomic Robo Vol 2

Atomic Robo TPB Volume 2: Atomic Robo & the Dogs of War by Brian Clevinger

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A lot of fun, just like the first one, but the World War II setting, combined with the heartfelt thanks to WWII vet grandfathers by the creative team, gives this one a bit of a bounce over the last one. It's still got plenty of the wacky, from the over-the-top Scottish accent of the character based on Clevinger's grandfather to much of Robo's dialogue, and there's a lot of action and fun, but... there's also some poignant moments.

The post-war finale with Robo's nemesis is nice, quiet, effective little tale about the ultimate reward of evil. There's an underlying respect and appreciation for the troops who fought in World War II, without getting all "the younger generation sucks by comparison" like Tom Brokaw.

And the art is terrific, and Matt Fraction is right in his prediction of great fame for colorist Ronda Pattison.

View all my reviews.

A Little Something for the "Direct Market is Dying" Folks

So I've been updating my Goodreads page as I read stuff, which generally includes some of the new graphic novels I've bought at the shop as well as novels, older graphic novels, etc.

And it's brought to my attention something that the "buy online, it's cheaper" crowd might want to consider.

Amazon.com, Buy.com, etc. don't get everything when it releases.

For example: Goodreads has no listing (and nor does Amazon) for the latest Boom! collections of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, the omnibuses. Which, for the record, even at retail, are cheaper than buying the three trades at Amazon discount, and, more to the point, a great format for the stories.

Atomic Robo Volume 2, which I bought on Wednesday, read on Friday night? Amazon has it listed as "This title has not yet been released." Not even a "Available this Wednesday" kind of thing.

Same thing happened with Scott Pilgrim 5... although, admittedly, thanks to Diamond's warehouse move, it's now available on Amazon, and hasn't quite made it fully back into comic book circulation yet, although hopefully we'll see that resolved next Wednesday.

Unrelated to comics, I remember something similar happening with Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. We sold a *ton* of that early on anyway, but we started selling more in the first week when folks were canceling their online preorders and buying from us instead, since the online retailers weren't even getting the books for another week or two, much less shipping them out.

GoodReads Review: Wildcards: Inside Straight

Inside Straight by George R.R. Martin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
After a long time away (I don't know that I read the last couple of books), I was drawn back to Wild Cards by the promise of an updated universe and my interest in George R.R. Martin thanks to Game of Thrones.

I was very pleased with the results. As with all of the "mosaic novels," there are chapters, writers and characters who are not as strong as the rest, but the American Hero reality show and its varying contestants make up a pretty strong group, as diverse and interesting as the original Wild Cards (and I see that Holy Roller, mentioned in the GURPS Wild Cards book, made it into the universe he helped create after all). I was particularly taken with Jonathan Hive and the blog post entry style used to convey his writing, but I also really liked Curveball, Drummer Boy and the British spy, whose identity and powers I can't really talk about without giving away one of the cooler surprises of the book.

The story transitions nicely from the manufactured TV drama of American Hero to the more serious politically-infused drama in Egypt, without making either story feel like a waste of time. I'd love to see it adapted to comics, because there are a lot of cool visual moments in the writing, but even as a standalone novel about superheroes, it shows why the Wild Cards universe captured my attention way back when and sort of makes me long to reread them all. Except that I don't own them anymore, and I definitely don't have time for such a mass re-reading.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Comics - February 25th, 2009

Big (and pretty good) week, plus new trades with Warhammer Fantasy Omnibus from Boom!, Starman Volume 2 hardcover and Atomic Robo Volume 2.

Avengers The Initiative #22 (Ramos seems to be trying out a Simonson-esque style, and it sometimes works and sometimes really, really doesn't. Despite some difficult moments, though, I really liked the story, mostly due to Gage using New Warriors and other C-listers very effectively in this story)

Captain America #47 (Guice turns up the gritty on his art, and while it's not as clear as his usual stuff, it's a beautiful stylistic fit for Cap, and Brubaker's tale of another dark secret in Bucky's past is pretty interesting. Plus, as always, some of the best espionage/action in comics)

Doctor Who The Whispering Gallery (Great art, meh story, didn't really think Moore & Reppion captured the Doctor's voice)

GI Joe Origins #1 (I like everyone involved in this, but it's a bit of a mismash. Jarring changes in art, a jumbled story and some really unbelievable attempts at making the Joe training "extreme" make this a touch disappointing... I'll still want to see where it goes, but it was an overly busy opener)

Green Lantern #36-38 (I finally dove into the Green Lantern stuff, and now I definitely want to go back and read the Sinestro Corps War. Great visuals by Reis, and Johns takes what could have been a lame concept, the rainbow lanterns, and makes it pretty damn cool)

Incredible Hercules #126 (The origin of the Marvel Hercules is a really fun story, but the best part of this issue is an Amadeus Cho solo story with art by Takeshi Miyazawa)

Mighty Avengers #22 (Yeah, I think I'm done. Sketchy artwork, a mismash of characters and a jangled plot, not to mention some kinda annoying takes on the characters I do like, makes for a mediocre read)

Nova #22 (Once again, it looks like Richard Rider is screwed and cosmic events are going to turn very, very bad. Abnett & Lanning really know how to do high stakes galactic superheroics)

Star Wars Legacy #33 (The Mon Calamari side stories are the least interesting part of the book, but I kind of like the Imperial Knight they've introduced here)

Thunderbolts #129 (I see now why Diggle was twittering about how much fun he was having writing the bad guys. It comes through in this book, as Norman Osborn frames Samson and uses his black ops team to set himself up as a hero. Kudos to Diggle for making Obama skeptical despite it all, so he comes off as smart. The multiple artists are a bit of a bummer, but it's all solid at least, even if I do wish Deodato had stayed onboard this book rather than decamping for Dark Avengers)

The Umbrella Academy Dallas #4 (We're into the point of the series where I start having trouble following it, but it's still tons of fun, beautifully illustrated and sure to read great when the collected edition hits)

Usagi Yojimbo #118 (Loving the new story, and I need to go back and see where the demon hunter first appeared, because he's a cool as hell character)

You Are Not Allowed To Watch This Show

CBS announces Arranged Marriage reality show

You are not allowed to watch this show:

A) If you've ever been making that ridiculous argument that gay marriage somehow diminishes the institution of marriage

B) You did not watch Firefly, Pushing Daisies, Arrested Development and/or Cupid

C) You are not being paid or held at gunpoint in order to force you to do so

D) All of the Above

(Psst... the correct answer is D. If *this* doesn't degrade the institution of marriage, I'm afraid that the institution is completely un-tarnishable. If this succeeds and, worse, gets a second season, when so many great shows did not, it further weakens any remaining faith I have in television as a medium. And if you're not being paid or somehow forced to watch this, surely the shame of finding entertainment in the sad, pathetic spectacle of this show should keep folks away.)

I have to give credit where it's due, though... I didn't think CBS's reality division could disgust me more than they did by green-lighting Kid Nation. Kudos, scumbags!

Goodreads Review: 20th Century Boys Volume 1

Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Volume 1: The Prophet by Naoki Urasawa

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
After loving Monster, I was anxiously awaiting the two new Naoki Urasawa series from Viz. The first volume of 20th Century Boys doesn't disappoint. Like Monster, it's got a slow-burn opener, but it's full of potential, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

The easiest comparison is to a Stephen King story, with a tale of young boys having shared secrets and a made-up secret society, only to discover in their adult lives that those childlike playtime behaviors are having more sinister real-world effects. Urasawa builds a compelling cast of characters and really sells the creepiness of "The Friend's" cult.

Kudos also to Viz for giving this the deluxe treatment, with flaps and a slightly oversized printing.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Comics - February 18, 2009

Super-light week. But it's a week in which the two new Urasawa manga were released, so that's OK.

Dynamo 5 #0 (Doesn't really get across the fun of the whole book, but it's a tasty little buck-priced snack that might entice folks to try out the trade)

Guardians of the Galaxy #10 (I keep thinking I couldn't be any happier with this book, and I keep being proven wrong. The use of Jack Flag is terrific, there's a lot of great action and I like the multi-layered plotting going on)

Uncanny X-Men #506 (Dr. Nemesis is growing quite tiresome, and the book feels like it's flailing a bit in terms of plot, but I still like the "mutant rescue"/San Francisco variation on the X-Men, and the Dodsons' art is pretty strong)

X-Men Legacy #221 (Really reminds me of why I liked the post-#200 X-Men, even though it was clearly on the decline. Fun continuity bits, good action, involving soap opera, nice art... probably completely unreadable to anyone who hasn't read X-Men for years and years, but if you have, it's kinda fun)

Street Angel Trailer

It's a fun trailer, and one of my favorite moments (the megaphone scene) is in there.

The Most Important Post I Will Make This Year

If you can read this without it absolutely breaking your heart, you're a better person than I am. But the bottom line is that somebody really needs all the help she and her family can get, and I aim to do my part.

Kari Anne Roy is a mom and blogger and writer whose blog, Haiku Mama, inspired her first book. I've met Kari only once, when she was doing some research for a possible comics-related book, but she's on an email list/community for Austin moms with my wife, and she feels like a friend of the family.

She and her family have had much more than their fair share of troubles lately. Their baby boy, Isaac ("Ike" for short), was a troubled pregnancy, and after all of the stress and worry, the Roys got what seemed like a miracle. Ike was delivered prematurely, but he survived, and was getting stronger, and came home.

But he's had health issues, and just recently they took a turn for the worse, landing Ike back in the hospital. On top of that, thanks to the economy, Kari's husband recently lost his job, which means that their health insurance (through COBRA) is immensely expensive.

What they really need is a ton of good luck, but I can't help with that. They also need moral support, and they're getting tons of that through the Austin Mamas List. I can help a little with that. But what they're really gonna need, with this crisis sort of taking over their life, is money to help them get through.

The Austin Mamas are working on bake sales, silent auctions, etc. Rogues Gallery will definitely be donating comics and games for any silent auctions. But I'd like to do more. I'd love to be able to do a small auction of signed comics/graphic novels, etc. at the store, with all of the money going to the Roys. The comics industry has always been amazing about rallying around its own, and I'm reluctant to keep asking folks to give more, but if any of my comics-creating friends reading this would be willing to donate some original art, a sketch, a signed comic or something of that nature for a charity auction, I sure would appreciate it. You can drop me an email at pants.randy@gmail.com.

You can see more about all this at http://www.ikeasaurus.com/

Weekly Comics - February 11th, 2009

Batman #686 (Well, it probably won't live up to "Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?" but that's a pretty high bar to clear. At any rate, it's a strong opener, with very good artwork by Andy Kubert)

BPRD The Black Goddess #2 (It doesn't really seem fair that Mignola has two books this good out in one week, but BPRD and Hellboy, while different, share a level of amazing quality, intricate yet approachable continuity and stunning artwork. BPRD remains one of the best comics published right now, period)

Dynamo 5 #19 (Missed this one last week. Nice action, good conclusion to the alt Dynamo 5 tale, the cliffhanger had me scratching my head trying to figure out what the tattoo meant)

Fables #81 (I've said before that Fables basically ended for me with #75, and I view this stuff as sort of an "alternate continuity," but this was an interesting issue for all of that, sad, occasionally brutal to some of its characters. And the bad guy... is that the tooth fairy?)

G.I. Joe #2 (It's a bit of a slow-burn, but I'm digging the slow build-up, really enjoying the artwork and just generally loving this new take on G.I. Joe)

Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #3 (Cool to see some familiar faces from early Hellboy stories, while the story itself is something new and interesting playing off the dichotomy of Hellboy's nature, and Fegredo continues to rock on art)

Incognito #2 (Wow. I loved issue one, but issue two is a stronger issue. The opening crook/lawyer scene was a great use of superhuman abilities on a classic mafia story trope, the twists and turns of "ordinary" life as affected by supervillains throughout are fascinating, and it's got a great cliffhanger. Plus another terrific pulp write-up, this time on Doc Savage, from Jess Nevins)

Punisher #1 (Picked up the second print on a whim to read, and it's a good opener, fun Punisher vs. Superman (well, Sentry, same dif) tactical stuff with nice, gritty looking art from Opena)

Thor #600 (Brian Hibbs oversells it just a tad, and I honestly only really liked the lead story as much as he clearly liked the whole book, but that lead story is pretty damn good)

Walking Dead #58 (Man, it's good, but... it may be getting too dark for a dad like me. I got enough horrible "what ifs" in my head already, I don't need more ideas for bad things that could happen... even if they're fictional)

Goodreads Review: Finder Vol 1

Finder, Vol. 01: Sin-Eater 1 by Carla Speed McNeil

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finder is an immensely ambitious, occasionally frustrating but mostly thoroughly entertaining read. Carla Speed McNeil has crafted a pretty immense world here, and it's clear from reading the comic pages and the annotations that there's so much more than she's able to get into the book.

That's good in that the world feels fully realized, and bad in that, as others have noted, the story sometimes feels maddeningly vague or incomplete. Without the annotations at the back, some of the story cues in the comic (like when it's a flashback or a dream, or even what a particular character is doing) are unclear or even downright impossible to figure out.

However, even without knowing fully what's going on, there are a lot of neat sci-fi ideas and some amazingly fleshed-out characters. McNeil does fall into the "tell, not show" problem with the characters from time to time, but even without her notes, you can pick up on a lot of inner conflict and flaws in the various characters. These characters feel more real than most fiction can manage, and that goes a long way in terms of making this a favorite.

In addition, McNeil's artwork is beautiful, reminiscent of Terry Moore in its adoration (but not objectification) of the human form, male or female and her mastery of expression, whether it's subtle facial expression or more broad physical movement. And while her panel structure is generally straightforward, she's not afraid to break the pattern in order to show off a chaotic moment, an expansive backdrop or a character experiencing something spiritual.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Comics - February 4, 2009

Agents of Atlas #1 (Strong opener, and the use of Norman Osborn means that maybe more folks will pick it up who missed the original, great miniseries. Fun backup with Logan & Agents of Atlas in the '50s, too)

Bad Dog #1 (Shockingly fun and delightfully rude, Joe Kelly turns in a book that has his usual quirkiness, combined with a style more like that of Garth Ennis and a more straightforward storytelling style than Kelly's creator-owned stuff tends to have. And, in keeping with the theme of the week, this is another book with fantastic artwork. Diego Greco's digitally inked and colored artwork and unique character designs really help give the book its flavor.)

Buffy #20-22 (Picked these up on a whim, and they're not bad. The Harmony story feels like a weird fit for the universe we've seen, but issue #20's animated series flashbacky type thing was fun and #22's Japanese adventure (and interesting villain) was entertaining as well)

Dark Avengers #1 (I have to admit, I didn't hate this. Bendis's Avengers have always seemed kinda douchey and villainy to me, so having the much-hated Sentry and Ares side with the black hats, not to mention the Thunderbolts turn the team has taken of making villains in heroes' clothing, all seems to fit, and the artwork is gorgeous.)

The Mighty #1 (Honestly? I'm kind of tired of "realistic" superheroes at this point. But Tomasi, Snejbjerg and Champagne earned a look with Light Brigade, and they serve up a pretty intriguing first issue with great characters and great art)

Scott Pilgrim 5 (Spectacularly good, as always. Maybe not quite as much as volume 4, which was my favorite of the series thus far, but still an exceptional read. Now the long wait for the final volume begins.)

Secret Warriors #1 (Didn't hate this either, but it's a terrible first issue in terms of accomplishing what a first issue should. Doesn't establish who the characters are at all, drops a huge, nonsensical retcon and seems to think it's doing something different in establishing: A) SHIELD is corrupt and B) Now it's Nick Fury against SHIELD. We've seen it before. At least three times. He always comes back, SHIELD always comes back, and I'd much rather this was just a Nick Fury, Commander of SHIELD comic, knowing that. I also don't give a crap about the ill-defined and barely explained kid team Fury's running. But when Fury's doing his thing, the book is good, and the artwork by Stefano Caselli is terrific.)

War of Kings: Darkhawk #1 (Nice use of the "Loners" characters from Vaughan's Runaways, and while I'm sad to see the Darkhawk at Project Pegasus status quo disappear so fast, giving him a little Annihilation: Nova style upgrade probably isn't a bad idea. Also, really nice artwork from newcomers Harvey Tolibao and Bong Dazo, Marvel is really coming up with great new art talents lately. Reprinting the fairly bad Darkhawk #1 and charging an extra buck for the issue is kinda cheesy, though.)

X-Men: First Class #1 (Kind of meh, as an intro issue goes, even though I like Parker and Cruz together. But the villain reveal, and the tie-ins back to previous First Class stories, has me interested, and I did like the talk about what the kids were going to do when they graduated.)

Another Public Service Announcement from Katy

This time - how to jump rope:

Weekly Comics - January 28th, 2009

Avengers The Initiative #21 (Not wild to see Clor back, and Ramos's art is a weird fit, but... Gage is doing cool stuff with B- and C-listers, including the team that makes a surprise last-page appearance, and fitting together puzzle pieces to make Dark Reign make more sense overall)

Captain America #46 (The new adversary isn't that compelling, but the action/espionage vibe of the book remains strong, even in the weaker issues)

Incredible Hercules #125 (Alternate world stuff is always fun, Incredible Hercules is always fun, Salva Espin is a pretty damn good artist and this was another great issue of one of Marvel's best books)

Nova #21 (Solicits and covers revealed the big surprise, but it's still an interesting story... and it's especially interesting that Richard Rider *does* seem to be a bit erratic, and he might not be the hero of his own story at the moment)

Presidents of the United States TP (I usually don't mention trades in these things, but I got this and read it and it's flat-out cool. Neat little historical tidbits about the Presidents alongside portraits by Templesmith, it's bite-sized history and pretty art all together)

The Umbrella Academy #3 (Spectacularly cool and weird, beautifully drawn, I love this book)

Usagi Yojimbo #117 (Starting a new story, with new allies, a new villain, some old friends and a new magical macguffin. I've enjoyed the one-offs, but a new ongoing seems like just the thing right now.)

It's Still Weird...

I'm still trying to get used to seeing the President speak and not cringing. Even more, I'm still trying to get used to feeling not embarrassed or terrified, but inspired and hopeful.

Weekly Comics - January 21, 2009

Guardians of the Galaxy #9 (Great use of Jack Flag, good to see Star-Lord again, and I love the last page capper.)

Mighty Avengers #21 (Slott has some really good ideas, like Jarvis as heart of the Avengers, and I like the unusual makeup of the team (except Hulk - does that trick ever work?), but I hate that Hank Pym is on a recursive redemption arc because of one badly-written story that should have been retconned out long ago, I'm bored stiff by the choice of villain and I think Khoi Pham's art is severely uneven. Sadly, my mixed reaction *still* means this was my favorite Avengers title in years, save the not-really Avengers Initiative.)

Mysterius the Unfathomable #1 (Lots of fun, beautifully illustrated, kind of like Doctor Who if he were a magician instead of a Time Lord)

Street Fighter Legends Chun Li #1 (Surprisingly fun, great car chase sequence, nice to see a Street Fighter comic that isn't another rehash of the origins of Ken, Ryu, Sagat and Bison)

Thunderbolts #128 (Fantastic issue, nice use of Obama, *great* fun seeing Norman Osborn as scheming, capable villain and I love the new Thunderbolts team - maybe better than the latter half of Ellis's run.)

Tiny Titans #12 (Amusing as always, and Darkseid the lunch lady/temporary principal was worth the price of admission all by itself)

Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 (Well, I don't really think Fraction captured early Emma Frost, I don't particularly like the Namor/Frost relationship, I don't like the retconning, I don't like her being in the Dark Reign cabal and I wasn't wild about the art. Other than that, not too bad. Which is to say: Blech. Hope we won't be getting more of this kind of thing now that Frost has been brought into the Marvel Universe more, but I'm afraid we will)

X-Men Legacy #220 (Really enjoyed this, actually. I'm a fan of Rogue, but she hasn't been used well in the last, uh, 15 years or so, and this was a step in the right direction. Also like the Xavier/Gambit interaction, and while I'm not thrilled to see the villain who showed up at the end, I like Carey's take on her/it thus far.)

Is TV Dying?

Inspired by Heather Massey's "Are Comic Books Dying?" post:

I don't know if you guys have noticed, but it seems to me like there are a whole lot of ways to watch television these days. You can buy it on your XBox, on iTunes, on-demand through your cable box, you can watch a lot of it (legally) for free on sites like Hulu or almost all of it (illegally) via Bit Torrent. And lots of folks are skipping past commercials using DVR, and lots of folks are not even watching episodes anymore, they're just "waiting for the DVDs."

These people are killing the industry, right? "Waiting for the DVDs" just tells the people making TV programs that you don't care about their shows, and if your favorite shows get canceled, it's all your fault. Also, Best Buy, that chain of specialty stores that sells DVDs and TVs, is almost certain to go out of business because their product mix is changing, and they're probably too dumb to adjust.

Ridiculous, right? Is there anyone out there who really believes that television (the medium, not the current industry as it stands) is going to go away? Does anyone really believe that the network/cable structure, despite undergoing huge upheavals in advertising streams, programming and other long-held business models, are going to vanish or go into bankruptcy in the next five years or so?

Then why is everyone so willing to believe it about comics? I've been a comics reader for 25 years, I've worked in comics retail for about 9 (1 in college, 8 more recently) and for as long as I've been keeping up with comics culture on the Internet, there have been people loudly predicting the death of: A) the direct market B) independent comics and C) the comics medium as a whole. That, btw, was about 15 years ago. The direct market is still here. The comics medium is sure as hell here. The independent comics? Weakened, but still here. Look at the graphic novel side of the independent comics scene and they're flourishing, especially compared to about 10 years ago.

There are many challenges. The increasingly visible $4 price point is a huge looming problem, yes. The difficulty in selling independent comics that aren't graphic novels (I refuse to call them "pamphlets" or "floppies" because unlike so many, I don't have an active disdain for that format) is a big problem as well. And what the future holds as far as digital comics is a big question mark as well.

But any halfway decent shop is already doing a fair amount of business in graphic novels, original and collected both. Any intelligent shop-owner is thinking every day about digital format, price increases and the diversity of the product and how their store can deal with the changes. This notion that the specialty market, or worse, the entire medium, is some kind of outmoded dinosaur ignores two important things:

1. Comic Book Store owners aren't, as a rule, entirely dim. Some may be, but anyone who has been able to keep their store open and profitable has probably already survived the harsher culling of the market in the '90s, or is well aware of the pitfalls of retailing at the very least, since they all probably existed when they opened their store.

2. Comic books, and the direct market, have been around for quite some time now, and every year, people are loudly predicting its death. Every year, they're wrong.

There seems to be an industry-wide inferiority complex combined with some strange sort of self-directed schadenfreude wherein everyone must constantly expect disaster. Price increases have happened before. Webcomics have been around for quite some time. Graphic novels have been around even longer. Digital comics, I'll grant you, are a newer wrinkle, but as has been pointed out (and ignored) ad infinitum, there is a big difference in mediums between comic books and music, where you can make a strong argument that digital distribution quickly and radically changed how the medium reached its customers, to the arguable detriment of the industry.

Jesus. How the fuck did I become the optimist in this particular room?

What The Inauguration Means To Me

Talking Points Memo has asked folks to email them their thoughts on the inauguration and what it means to them. But rather than do that, I figured, "Hey, I have a blog! Why don't I write stuff there?"

I like to think myself a cynic, but compared to some of my friends (Hi, Nate!) I'm a starry-eyed optimist. And the truth is, Barack Obama really gets to that optimistic side of me. I teared up watching U2 singing at an over-produced concert in Washington, D.C., being broadcast on HBO.

And here's the thing: It's not what the inauguration means to me, really. It's what I think it means for my kids. For six years, ever since we knew Katy was coming, I've been watching as the world got worse and worse. As the Bush Administration made America less and less a country I wanted to be a part of, much less bequeath to my child in the future. It seemed like the American dream of leaving a country where my child could do better than I had was not going to be possible. Worse, it seemed like even a modified, scaled-down version of the dream, leaving America as good as it was when I was growing up, wasn't going to be possible.

Sunday night, as Katy was watching part of the pre-Inaugural celebration with me, and Martin Luther King III came out, she told me about Martin Luther King Jr., who they had been learning about in school. I got the five-year-old version of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. And Katy gets it, better than I did at her age... they described it in kid terms, but she knows that he "fought with words, not fists" and she knows that Rosa Parks "got arrested because she wouldn't give up her seat to a white man," but as a five-year-old, the significance of these things doesn't quite sink in. But perhaps more importantly, when we talked about judging people based on who they are, not the color of their skin? She honestly had trouble comprehending what I was talking about. My kid's pretty smart, but this whole notion of judging someone based on their skin color? She doesn't get it. Racism is a completely foreign concept to her.

Now I know part of that is a childish innocence, but I also know that because of the powerful message that Barack Obama's inauguration sends out, that more and more kids are going to see that the racists are the minority. They're the crazy ones.

And that's what Barack Obama's inauguration means to me. When I was in the minority who didn't want George W. Bush as President in 2000, and even worse, in 2004, I started to feel like my country had gone completely insane. Suddenly the majority were the crazy ones. (In the spirit of unity that Obama is trying to encourage, I apologize for any offense this gives my Republican readers (Hi, Chris!), but in the spirit of honesty, voting for Bush in 2004, especially in hindsight, has got to be categorized at the least as foolish act, right?) But now, though there are plenty of crazies out there trying to recruit for their white supremacist movements, trying to enforce their religious beliefs on the whole world or just trying to make a buck by playing to our own worst natures, the majority is on the side of hope. The large majority has a favorable opinion of our new President, most have realistic expectations about what he can accomplish but also hope that he can accomplish unrealistic goals.

And for every annoyance, both minor (emailer tech issues) and major (Diamond deciding to try and strangle the indie comics market), that has occurred in the last few days, I can't help but find a smile on my face. Because for the first time in eight years, it feels like sanity, intelligence and hope has won out over insanity, ignorance and self-interest.

So...

Does anyone else feel like throwing a *huuuuge* goddamn party on Tuesday? Like fireworks and music and people drunkenly shouting "I love you, man!" at everyone in sight?

Is it just me?

Seriously, inauguration fever and optimism is so prevalent in me right now that there's only a tiny amount of bitter hatred wishing 24-7 that Dick Cheney will keel over dead, and only a tiny bit of joyous spite in remembering that Bush is gone, gone, gone.

Edit: Nope. Not just me.

Late Breaking Appreciation

Everyone else is probably over the plane in the Hudson River story at this point, but I've started reading more about it, and...

Wow. It was a near-miss. This could so easily have been a tragedy, killing people on the plane and on the ground, causing all kinds of havoc and destruction. And the reason it didn't is mostly down to one man, the pilot, Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, who made the decision to put down in the Hudson and got everybody rescued.

Every day, every hour, I read stories about people making bad decisions. It's rare to read about someone who made the exact right one, and in so doing saved countless lives.

Blogroll Addition: Robot Viking

So I've added another new feed to the Blogroll: Robot Viking

Why? Well, it's from one of the contributors to io9, which is an awesome sci-fi (or science-fiction, if you're some kind of high-strung wanker who gets bent out of shape by the abbreviation sci-fi) website that not only features the latest home of Graeme McMillan (one of the best writers on the Internet) but some great commentary, snark, funny and quirky weird from a pretty solid staff. The gaming columns were always few and far between, but I always enjoyed them, and now Ed Grabianowski (yeah, I copied and pasted that last name) has set up his own blog devoted entirely to pen-and-paper role-playing, miniatures and other games. Which is not only half my business, it's also a good chunk of how I spend my hobby time.

Also, Robot Viking is an awesome name. Check it out!

Shrieking, Mocking Triumphant Laughter

Imagine Bill Hicks at his most manic, gleeful, "fuck you" laughter.

Some of you may recall me working myself into a bit of a froth over Bush's veto of the expansion of SCHIP, the child healthcare plan.

As annoying as that was, it also means I take special glee in this, from CNN:

House passes expansion of children's health program

See, Bush is on his way out, so he can't wave his magic veto wand at the bill again. Hell, he's so impotent at this point, he can't even fill up a press conference.

No, the bill that he (and other Republicans, including John McCain) shot down, the bill that provides expanded health care for American children? It's headed to President Obama's desk.

FOR HIM TO SIGN.

I hope it's the first in a long line of "Fuck Yous" that the Democrats have planned for Bush and his administration. Certainly the "Tomnibus" bill was a similar thing of beauty, as Harry Reid shows signs of a spine and cleverness that I was beginning to think the Democrats lacked, even when they're the majority party.

Weekly Comics - January 14th, 2009

BPRD Black Goddess #1 (Kicking off the next story arc, with some great Lobster Johnson flashbacks, more build-up of the big bad and a quieter, investigative issue of the book. With the usual stunning artwork)

Fables #80 (It's getting darker again, and I do enjoy reading it, but I have to admit, the end with the Adversary still feels like the end of the series to me)

GI Joe #1 (A strong opener, with some particularly nice work redefining Scarlett and Duke, a nifty update of Dial-Tone, a fantastic looking new version of The Pit and Cobra not as known entity but spooky bad guy being built up in the background. IDW's relaunch strategy is paying off so far for this longtime diehard GI Joe fan)

Walking Dead #57 (Missed this one last week, but it's another harrowing, undeniably compelling issue of one of the darkest comics I read)

Left 4 Dead: Lessons Learned

I've been wanting to break out the Left 4 Dead videogame I got for Christmas, but haven't been sure I wanted to play single-player. So I've been waiting for a couple of friends on XBox Live to start playing so I could join them in a game. I've previously played the game demo, once single-player and once multi-player, and found it to be a lot of fun.

A little background: I don't do first-person shooters. Not because I don't want to, but because playing most of them for as little as 10 minutes makes me extremely physically ill. For some miraculous reason, however, the zombie shooter that I desperately wanted to play, Left 4 Dead, is something I can play without my stomach rebelling. But I still lack the ingrained first person shooter awareness/tactics skillset that most gamers have honed to a fine edge.

Tonight, as I was about to watch an episode of Burn Notice Season One and then head to bed to do some reading, I saw that Marc Bernardin was online, and his game was listed as "Joinable." So I figured, what the hell and joined in, to find that Marc (a fine writer whose comic books included Highwaymen, a personal favorite of mine) was playing with John Rogers (a fine writer whose Blue Beetle comic was also quite good, and who has a terrific blog as well). I'd be intimidated trying to hold a conversation with these two guys, but killing zombies beside them? That I figured I could handle.

Except that every time the scores posted, I was the lowest man on the totem pole. By a lot. Even below the NPC player run by the computer. I know for a fact that I shot Marc twice with an automatic weapon when trying to kill zombies. I know that when I was trying to apply a medpack to a badly-wounded John, I couldn't figure it out, and wound up half-starting and half-starting healing on myself three times instead of just giving up, shooting and preventing him from taking any further damage. I know that during the grand rescue at the end, I couldn't find the airlift, and I wound up dying alongside the NPC. Which, honestly, was probably what I deserved.

So I played a little solo game tonight, to get more used to the controls, and I'll probably keep at that for a little while. Left 4 Dead is a really fun game, with a great creepy zombie vibe mixed in with a healthy appreciation for automatic weapons fire and classic FPS carnage. Watching the zombies swarm on a pipe bomb was a treat, learning to patiently take headshots was a lot of fun and there are all kinds of scary/cool moments, and I've only played two sections of one scenario and three sections of another one.

I'll definitely be playing more, and definitely hope to play multiplayer (which the game seems particularly geared for) after I've learned to be slightly less awful at it. Marc, if you're reading this, sorry I shot you repeatedly with an automatic weapon. But there were zombies all around us and I panicked.

24: It's Back And...

I'm bored. I gave up on 24 before the end of last season. At least, I think I did, as I have only vague memories of it, but I may have watched through to the end. Who knows... it was all so long ago, and had long past the point of stupid.

Understand, I loved 24 at the outset. I was willing to roll with the ridiculous amnesiac plot in the first season, I have a certain fondness for the Kim/Cougar second season bit (if only for the running gags, and for Johnny Drama as survivalist nut who's hard up for a date) and I thought the show picked up again in its fourth and/or fourth season (like I said, they all kind of blend together for me at this point). I didn't even mind the obvious right-wing wet dream that the show represented. Hell, West Wing was a liberal wet dream, so if I don't have any problem with that, I really shouldn't have a problem with 24.

But the new season takes an entertaining, dumb-but-fun action show with right-wing tendencies and turns it into a polemic about how useless the UN is, how right the U.S. is to unilaterally invade a country, how important torture is and how any senator questioning someone about using torture is clearly the bad guy in the room. It also saddles us with the same tropes of moles, overly convoluted sinister plots and various other credibility-straining plot and character developments, which would be OK if they were at least *new* credibility-straining plot and character developments. Worst of all, perhaps, is that after giving Tony Almeida (second best character on the show after Jack) a pointless bitch death in the prior season, they bring him back with a half-assed explanation and use him for either a dumb role (if he's what he appears to be in the first two episodes) or something we've seen plenty before (if in fact he's deep undercover).

I'd say more, but Alan Sepinwall pretty much nails it.

Life's too short, and there's too much good TV (Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice, new 30 Rock/Office/Chuck) on the way in a few weeks to waste precious hours on this. I'll check back in if I hear it gets better, but I don't expect that to happen.

Blogroll Addition: Colleen Coover

Colleen Coover, super-talented artist of Small Favors, Banana Sundays, X-Men First Class shorts and tons more, has a blog. As an enormous fan of Coover's stuff, I am adding this blog to my blogroll.

Here is the kickass sketch of Batgirl Colleen did for my daughter, just one of the many reasons why I love her art.



Oh, incidentally, her husband Paul Tobin is a heck of a writer, too. He's doing some really fun stuff on Marvel Adventures and elsewhere right now.

GoodReads: RASL

Rasl Volume 1: The Drift by Jeff Smith

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jeff Smith returns to long-form comics after the success of Scholastic's Color Editions of Bone, with something quite different. It's a sci-fi noir tale, incorporating elements of Meso-American folklore, quantum physics and dimension travel and good old fashioned bad guys with guns. His protagonist is a hard-drinking art thief with a taste for the ladies, and the ability to travel dimensions to steal alternate world art.

With only three issues collected in this first collection, there's still a lot to be explored with RASL, and I suspect that we'll only know the true success/failure when we see the whole story completed. But Smith is clearly showing off his storytelling and art chops here, and if I were a betting man, I'd bet on this being another classic from one of the best cartoonists working in the medium.

The artwork is phenomenal. Smith's Bone was full of fantastic backdrops and characters, but RASL is set (more or less) in the real world, and a sleazy version of it, with back alleys, bars, etc. He's perfect at capturing this run-down world the hero has let himself fall into, and his character expressions and flawless action storytelling, displayed in Bone, are even more honed here.

The collection is oversized, which is great, because it really shows off the art. I continue to live in hope of a super-giant hardcover collection when it's all finished, at the enormous size that Smith printed his test run of the teaser comic in 2007, but if this is the best we get, it's still pretty good.

Fantastic stuff, and I'm completely enthralled and impressed so far.

View all my reviews.

GoodReads: Beyond! HC

Beyond! HC by Dwayne McDuffie

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
One of those forgotten gems of recent years, as Dwayne McDuffie takes a crew of B- and C-listers (including newcomers like Gravity and The Hood), drops them onto an alien planet in an updated spin on Secret Wars and serves up plenty of fun character interaction and a twisty, interesting plot.

I wasn't thrilled by what McDuffie did with one of the main characters, but he fixed it in his brief Fantastic Four run (which I'd also buy in hardcover, if Marvel did one), but I loved his use of the '90s Deathlok. I also liked his work on Al Kraven, which is to say I was able to read the book without constantly wishing that the character would be stabbed in the eyes. One up on his original creator, Ron Zimmerman, on that score.

In addition, this was one of my favorite projects by artist Scott Kolins, who had a great take on the science-gadgety Dr. Hank Pym, the Mike Norton-designed Gravity and Deathlok, among others.

View all my reviews.

Weekly Comics - January 7, 2008

Not a *ton* of comics this week, but a few good ones:

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #2 (Hellboy fights giants, Fegredo rocks the art, and there's a backup about the origin of Koschei the Deathless with Guy Davis art. Nice.)
Marvel Zombies 3 #4 (Solid ending, and though I'm hoping there won't be a Marvel Zombies 4, this was a pretty good read overall)
RASL Vol 1 TP (Love that it's oversized, wish it was as gigantic as that preview issue from San Diego. But so far, this is a great new book from Jeff Smith)
Secret Invasion War of Kings (I have to admit, this was a pretty cool use of the Inhumans, and a good way to make them a major player in the space wars that Abnett & Lanning have been writing since Conquest)
X-Men Noir #2 (The second issue was not as strong as the first, and it's leaning more into that "What If?" territory, but it's still a decent read)

XBox Thoughts: Ticket To Ride 1910

I still haven't cracked open my Left 4 Dead (because I know once I do it will consume me for hours), but I did download a couple things for the XBox in the last couple days.

I downloaded the Roy Orbison pack for Rock Band 2. Haven't played it yet, but figure I will either in the next couple of days or on my usual Saturday night online game with friends.

I also downloaded the 1910 expansion for the online Ticket To Ride game, which was 400 gamer points (about $5) and it was totally worth it. It adds on three new game modes, with a Globetrotter card (most routes connected) to replace or augment the Longest Route rule, and there's also a Big Cities variant where all the destinations connect through one of the "big" cities. These are minor tweaks, not unlike the Carcassonne King & Baron expansion, but like that expansion, they add a lot to the game without making the game play overly complex.

In short, definitely recommended.

More GoodReads reviews: Avengers Assemble and more

Avengers Assemble, Vol. 1 by Kurt Busiek

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
There are some elements of cheesiness, and a '70s/'80s throwback style, that are occasionally stumbling blocks for the Busiek/Perez (and later Busiek/Davis and Busiek/other artists) new millennial run of Avengers.

However, as someone whose definitive Avengers was the Roger Stern/John Buscema era, who still thinks Mark Gruenwald wrote the definitive Captain America, who would hold up the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition as one of the best comics Marvel ever published? Well, that's me, and that means this stuff was pretty much up my alley. Certainly more than the all-new, all-different (and sadly, all-so-much-better-selling) New Avengers Marvel is currently peddling.

I've got my problems with this run, including the awful new characters of Triathlon and Silverclaw, the obsession with "fixing" Hank Pym and any use of Morgana Le Fay, who was interesting in the Arthurian myths but sucks as a supervillain (no matter what universe she's in). But it's also got gorgeous art, makes use of the classic Avengers while also trying to move things forward a bit (true, Busiek's version of New Warriors' Justice and Firestar is a bit grating to long-time fans, but at least he tried to move them up to the big leagues) and is generally solid slam-bang superhero action.

View all my reviews.

Jekyll Thoughts

Interesting how important a good ending can be, and how destructive a weak one can be.

Because earlier this week, I was delighted to discover that Jekyll, a BBC miniseries written by Steven Moffat, was on Netflix Play Instantly, and I started watching it on my XBox 360. I watched the first two episodes and was instantly impressed, and began loudly talking it up to everyone I knew.

Tonight I watched the last three episodes in rapid succession and, while there's still a lot to like, the desire to have a "twist" ending threw the more carefully considered explanations that had been doled out completely out the window. Were this a series, I probably wouldn't have minded, because they could probably write their way out of the problems raised by a couple of the big last-minute reveals. But as a miniseries, it's a thoroughly unsatisfying ending that mostly left me thinking "But now the whole thing doesn't make any sense!"

At any rate, still very watchable, and probably even worth watching, if you can escape the irritation that will come with the nonsensical shock ending, but... there are a *ton* of unanswered questions now, and it seems likely those answers are never forthcoming (since there apparently won't be a second series), and that's annoying.

GoodReads Review: Warhammer Dark Heresy RPG

Dark Heresy RPG: Core Rulebook by Owen Barnes

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a pretty spectacularly good game. The Warhammer 40K universe has always interested me, spending hundreds of dollars on miniatures I don't have the talent, time or patience to paint... less so. So a role-playing game was perfect for me, and having played it, I can say that the system is pretty clear, perfect for evoking the bordering-on-parody but still effective darkness of the dark future of the Warhammer universe.

The game uses "careers" which are essentially classes, and it's a little more rigid than I like in that respect, more akin to D&D 1.0 and 2.0 than the more current stuff, but it also really helps to establish the flavor of the world, and even a bare-bones, rules-only character is going to have some flavor built in as a result.

The book itself is gorgeous, full-color with terrific artwork and a pretty strong layout. It could have used a better index and a lot better organization, particularly in terms of cross-indexing rules with one another, and it takes a lot of page-flipping during the game and a *lot* of familiarity before it's as comfortable as a game rulebook should be, but it's beautiful to look at and generally well-written, if not terribly well-organized.

There's also a ton of good material about the world here, and it's a must-read for those who are interested in the world, even if you'd never play a single session of the game.

View all my reviews.

New Year's Resolution #4: Read More

I already read a lot, but it's mostly comics and graphic novels. And then, mostly new comics and graphic novels. I just counted, and I've got a stack of well over 50 (maybe closer to 75-100) graphic novels sitting on my bedside table/headboard bookshelf. Some of them have been there for two to three years, waiting to be read. With the flow of comp copies mercifully over, I'm not facing the Sisyphean task of reading while more keeps flowing in, so my goal this year, in addition to whatever other comics and graphic novel reading I've been doing, is to read one, preferably two, graphic novels off that stack each week.

In addition, I read only a few novels in 2008. Audacity of Hope, three of the George R.R. Martin Song of Ice & Fire novels, a few others. This year, my goal is to read at least one novel a month, preferably two. I've got a stack of about six sitting on my bedside table, ranging from Stephen Colbert's book to Obama's Dreams of My Father to Rucka's latest novel (Patriot Acts) to the second Harry Dresden book to the James Ellroy classic Black Dahlia. I'll definitely read the last available Martin book, Feast For Crows, in January. And then I'll try to tackle more.

I'd like to read some more non-fiction as well. There are three or four books from authors who have been on The Daily Show that I've put on my to-read list, but I haven't even bought them yet because I've got such a backlog.

I also started doing a little more on the site Goodreads beyond just signing up whenever a friend emailed me about it. I'm slowly entering the books I've read and hope to read, and once that's done I think I'll go, alphabetically and methodically, through the graphic novel collection and put that in. So there will probably be some graphic novel short reviews as I do that. What can I say, I'm an organizer by nature, and have just a touch of OCD in me.

2008: The Year in Review

It seems like, from looking around online, most people had either an apocalyptically bad 2008 or one that was extremely up and down. By contrast, 2008 was a pretty good year to me, with some extremely nerve-wracking developments in the last couple months. Most of which sorted themselves out before 2009 actually arrived, so hopefully that's not an indication of the year to come.

It was a pretty shitty year for deaths. We lost Gary Gygax, Rory Root and George Carlin, among others. There were also a couple deaths in the family, folks who I had met only once or twice and didn't know well, but I liked them, and they had kids, so that was a bit of sadness. On the upside, we also lost Jesse Helms. Next year, I would like a better shitheel to decent person death ratio, but experience has shown that such a thing never really works out.

Much of my year was given over to following the political race, first Obama/Clinton and then Obama/McCain. It was a frustrating series of months, but the end result was that we got the President I wanted for the first time in 8 years.

I also fell completely in love with XBox 360 in general and Rock Band in particular in 2008. I got both as Christmas presents in late 2007, and now I just can't imagine not having them. Rock Band 2 came out and improved on Rock Band, which I already thought was a pretty perfect game, and with several of my friends picking up Rock Band 2 and XBox 360s, suddenly I'm able to do a lot of gaming with friends without a lot of arranging of schedules and such. I'm also loving the ability to play electronic versions of some boardgames, like Carcassonne, Catan and Ticket to Ride, and I'm looking forward to diving into Left 4 Dead, which I got for Christmas this year. Oh, and the XBox Experience update that allows you to view Netflix on-demand is way cool as well.

I was pretty happy with summer movies this year. Back in April, I was anticipating 13 summer movies, and of those, four were great, two were decent, two were disappointing and five I avoided seeing, and that generally seems to have been the right decision. Speed Racer was great (I have no idea what movie the critics saw), The Dark Knight was fantastic (and I was a doubter on Batman Begins), Iron Man was the best comic book movie there has ever been and Wall*E was as great as Pixar always is. I found Hulk to be pretty watchable, if not great, and I even liked the first half of Wanted, when I finally saw it on DVD. Sure, Hellboy II was underwhelming, and Indiana Jones blew chunks, but I mostly expected that. I haven't seen Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Get Smart, X-Files or The Happening, but except for the first two, I don't have any plans to see them, as I've heard generally awful things from friends who have.

Year two of Rogues Gallery went pretty well. We had our anniversary party in January, and that was a lot of fun. Around Christmas, we had a new image designed by Chad Thomas of Santa and our mascot, Maximillian Larch, which we loved, and it was a huge hit with our customers as well. We gave out about 500 magnets with the image over the course of the holiday shopping season, as well as buttons, and used it on our holiday gift certificates. We had several other big events this year as well. Free Comic Book Day was a lot of fun, with Scott Kolins in to do some signing and sketching. We had Matt Sturges in to sign on the release day of House of Mystery #1. And we ran two Comic Book Trivia events this year, one in April and one in October. Plans are to do the same thing next year, if interest merits it, as they're always a lot of fun.

We participated in Free RPG Day for the first time this year, and that was a little more low-key than Free Comic Book Day, but still a pretty good day and a good chance to show our gaming customers a little love. We also had a midnight release party for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, which was a huge success in our store, and became a favorite of many of us at the store as well. I started running a new 4th Edition D&D game, and I'm loving it so far.

Went to the San Diego Con this year, as always, and got to meet cartoonists Jason Horn and Dean Trippe, who crashed with me at the hotel for a couple nights. I was already a fan of Dean's work, and I became a fan of Jason's. I had a lot of fun at San Diego, but given the expense and hassle of arranging the whole thing, I'm giving serious thoughts to skipping it this year. Although if Don MacPherson does finally manage to make plans and go, I have to go, as that's a "solar eclipse" type thing that I'd hate to miss. So Don, keep me informed on travel plans.

Looking back over what I've blog-posted this year, it seems to me like I had a better 2008 than most, despite the economy tanking in the tail end of it. There were illnesses for me, Suzanne and the kids, there were definitely worrisome days and nights, but overall, everybody was healthy and happy, and remains so going into 2009.

R.I.P. Donald Westlake

Man, it's not even fully 2009 yet, and already we've lost somebody?

Donald Westlake, AKA Richard Stark, died of a heart attack on New Year's Eve. I haven't read much of Westlake's output, but I've read most if not all of his work as Stark. The guy was 75, which is not a bad run, but still... a shame to lose him.

Best of 2008: Television

Favorite New Show: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
Really, it's not even fair to have this category this year, what with the writer's strike and the supremely awful crop of new shows that premiered this year. Last year was disappointing as well, but it gave us Chuck, Burn Notice and Pushing Daisies. This year? The only other new shows that are even on my list are two cartoons, Spectacular Spider-Man and Batman Brave and the Bold. Both great in their category, but not really competing with Sarah Connor, which started off as a mildly forgetabble but entertaining hour of sci-fi/action TV and slowly developed a reasonably complex set of time-traveling protagonists and antagonists, each with their own agenda, all the while deepening the main characters, especially Sarah Connor herself, the surprisingly good Brian Austin Greene as Derek Reese and Summer Glau's female terminator Cameron.

Favorite Spy Action Show: Chuck (NBC)
OK, I might be cheating by putting this category in, but really... neither Burn Notice nor Chuck belong fully in comedy or drama. Burn Notice came on strong in its second season, and I definitely think that anyone enjoying one should be enjoying the other. But Chuck was such a huge jump-up from, again, mildly diverting entertainment to really engaging characters and the perfect mix of pop-culture references, spy action and goofy self-awareness. It might not hurt that the pop-culture timing of Chuck seems to be exactly keyed in to my '80s era, with heavy references to Die Hard, Back to the Future and other geek staples. Leverage, the new show from John Rogers and company, would probably fit in this category as well, but I haven't gotten around to watching it yet. The reviews I've read seem to indicate it'll be a distant third to Chuck and Burn Notice anyway, at least for now.

Best Comedy: The Office (NBC)
In my heart, I really want to give this to 30 Rock, but as far as being consistently funny, The Office wins. It also has managed to do the drama/comedy blend that shows like Cheers, Friends and others tried for and often missed, winding up maudlin and not funny as a result. The Michael/Holly relationship was hilarious, fun, uplifting and ultimately heart-breaking, and the Jim/Pam stuff is probably my favorite relationship ever in a comedy, including such gems as the Sam/Diane romance from Cheers and the Dave/Lisa relationship on Newsradio. OK, maybe Tobias and Lindsay Funke from Arrested Development were more fun, but that's a totally different kind of relationship. Which is not to say that 30 Rock hasn't been terrific in its second and third seasons. How I Met Your Mother on CBS has been more spotty, but it still has episodes of great humor, and really, it's hard to go wrong with a comedy ensemble that includes Alyson Hanigan, Jason Segel and especially Neil Patrick Harris. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia started out its season really strong, but it kind of fell apart midseason and never really regained the funny. There were funny moments, but after the first couple hilarious episodes, it was merely OK this season. Finally, it's weird to put it in the comedy category but it doesn't really belong in the drama, but Pushing Daisies was a really good show, heartwarming and funny and clever. Unfortunately, it's quirkiness also meant its inevitable doom, and I confess that being robbed of any resolution of the various relationships on the show, including whether or not Emerson Codd will ever find his daughter, has left me lukewarm on the whole thing. I still have three episodes left on my DVR to watch, and I haven't been pulled back yet because I know there's no resolution there.

Favorite Drama: Lost (ABC)
There was a fair amount of competition for me in this category. Not in terms of numbers, because I don't watch the overwhelming majority of drama on TV, which usually breaks down to cop shows, lawyer shows and doctor shows (and I've had my fill of all three), but in terms of quality. Battlestar Galactica is, to my mind, still stumbling to the finish line. For every brilliant episode they had, there were two or three that I found almost unwatchable. And I'm not entirely convinced by the over-arcing story they're telling. Unlike Lost, it's a lot easier to tell the creators are making up the big story as they go along. Lost, however, definitely *is* being made up as it goes along, but it's being told better, and so it doesn't feel quite as forced, even if it is at times more convoluted. And the moment-to-moment action and suspense on Lost is terrific, perhaps because the stakes are smaller than on Galactica. On Lost, the worst things are happening to a relatively small group of castaways. On Battlestar Galactica, the fate of the entire human (and Cylon) races are at stake. Weirdly, the events on Lost feel more important despite the smaller stakes, while Galactica, being viewed through a prism of just a few people, feels smaller, like it only impacts the dozen characters we see.

But... two other dramas ended this year. The Wire and The Shield. The Wire might be better than Lost, except that I watched all of it, seasons one through five, for the first time, and it just doesn't seem fair to stack five seasons of a show up against one season of any others. The Shield ended well, but had a bit of rough going in the early part of the final season. But both are must-watches, and have probably spoiled me for ever watching any more cop shows. I hear good things about Life, but honestly... after The Shield and The Wire, plus a few years of NYPD Blue and Law & Order, I can't imagine it will offer up anything so new and different as to add something new to the genre for me.

Favorite Cartoon: Spectacular Spider-Man (FOX)
This one was easy. I love the new Batman Brave and the Bold, it's fun and full of guest stars and looks great, but Spectacular Spider-Man is to Spider-Man what the Dini/Timm animated series was to Batman. It's absolutely definitive, and gets the character better than 90% of the folks who have ever written the comic. Which is fairly impressive. Like the Batman Animated series, it incorporates elements from various different visions to create a perfect fusion of what the character should be. It's taking way too long to get a season one DVD set, and I'm really anxious for a second season, although I have no idea when that's coming.

New Year's Resolution #2: Blog Update

Well, it's less a resolution and more of a housecleaning kind of thing. But here's the notable stuff:

1. No more monthly blog update postings. At least for now. I'll still update the top comics, graphic novels and TV sidebars, but posting about it was kind of silly.

2. I changed out my gigantic list of categorized links for a blogroll, which will be easier to maintain.

I had all these grand plans for doing a "comics day" and a "TV day" and a "Book day" and posting about whatever on certain days, but... not right now. I've just quit comic book reviewing for good, cold turkey, no more, for the first time in a loooong time, and I now have only one monthly deadline for writing. And that feels pretty good. So I'm not in any hurry to replace it with a new routine here.

Also on the resolution/accomplishment front:

1. Took down the Christmas lights today. Which is a notable improvement for how long it took me to take down last year's Christmas lights. Those I took down... uh, also today. So yeah.

2. Eating healthier - Today I've had takeout chinese, a hot dog, a helping of bread pudding, two Cokes, some chex mix made with bacon grease... and a cookie. So that one's blown already.

Weekly Comics - December 24th & January 5th

Week of January 2nd (if Diamond were delivering as scheduled - instead it's December 5th for me and much of Texas)
Avengers Initiative #20 (Curious to see the fallout from Secret Invasion for this book... weirdly, it's a book that benefits from crossovers rather than being muddled by them)
Captain America #45 (Brubaker's new story arc is not as grandiose (yet) as his previous one, but in every other respect, it's as good as Cap has been under his watch)
Guardians Of Galaxy #8 (Digging the new line-up, and this remains one of my favorite books at Marvel)
Incognito #1 (New crime/superhero noir from Brubaker and Phillips... cool)
Incredible Hercules #124 (The battle vs the amazons has been a pretty good story so far)
War Machine #1 (Only mild interest due to the '90s-style premise, but I like the character, I like the writer and I like the artist, so I have to give it a shot)

Week of December 24th
Gigantic #2 (Beautiful artwork, and an interesting story with giant robots and plenty of action)
Nova #20 (A really good issue with Nova talking with old friends, as the Nova Corps storyline continues to build)
Umbrella Academy Dallas #2 (Bizarre story, gorgeous artwork, fun to read and sure to read even better in trade)
Usagi Yojimbo #116 (A Gen solo story which is one of my favorite issues of an already-impressive year for Usagi)
Warhammer 40k Defenders Of Ultramar #1 (New Warhammer 40K focusing on Space Marines)
Warhammer Crown Of Destruction #3 (Kieron Gillen's Warhammer fantasy series featuring the Skaven continues)