Weekly Recap - November 13th, 2010

Comics Retailing:
Kind of stunned by the amount of Dark Horse material currently out of print. Dr. Horrible, Serenity Vol 2, Beasts of Burden, Black Lagoon, Empowered 6, Goon Vol 1, Umbrella Academy Vol 1, Buffy Vol 1 & 5, etc. I had actually thought Dark Horse was a comic book publisher. Does it count if you only publish things sporadically every six months or so?

By the way, these are not marginal titles. Especially in the case of Umbrella Academy, Serenity and Dr. Horrible, these are books that sell every week. I know setting a print run isn't easy, but some of these have been out for months. I can forgive temporary print shortages, that's down to guessing and gauging orders, and every retailer knows how tricky that is. What I have a harder time forgiving is taking months and months to reprint key titles.

You know what is in print, right as the TV buzz is at its highest? Walking Dead. And it has *stayed* in print. Image, at least, is doing right by retailers and fans.

This comic about real customers at a comics shop has been making the rounds. Now, most of my customers are great people that I really appreciate. But the rest? There's enough truth in these comics that I laughed. A lot.

Food:
Gypsy trailer picnic was *packed* I got to have a delicious crawfish etoufee pie at Kate's Southern Comfort, and a Cherry Bomb donut from Gordough's, before heading off to work. A touch late because of all the traffic. Gordough's is delicious, but it might not have been the best idea on a mostly empty stomach. I was full/uncomfortable for about half the day.

Kate's, btw, is fantastic. I went back for lunch a week later and had another crawfish pie, as well as the Nak-i-Dish Classic (beef and pork). My friend Jamie got bread pudding, but was too full for most of it, so I got to have a fair bit of that, and it was pretty tasty as well.

I'm getting enough invites to potluck events that I need to come up with some sort of signature side dish I can always make and bring. This is difficult, as my favorite side dishes are mostly potato-based, and fancier, more distinctive dishes are probably for those who like vegetables. (Currently in the running: Spinach dip, artichoke dip, roasted mushrooms from friends, and a potato/green chile/cheese dish that my mom makes)

TV/Movies:
The Halloween episode of TV Dudes, in which I scandalously admit that I love Cougar Town more than Modern Family right now.

I feel like Cougar Town deserves a slow clap for their most recent post-credits sequence, *especially* since they acknowledged the debt it owed to Spaced.

Wow, the new Avengers cartoon is kind of terrible. And Iron Man sounds *exactly* like Jack Black. Weird choice.

"New Winnie the Pooh from Disney" gave me pause, but... this trailer looks pretty great.

Comics:
Evan Bryce is super-talented *and* a helluva nice guy. I've got several pieces from him at the store and in the home office, and recommend everyone get one of his prints.

Read Dungeons & Dragons #1 by Rogers & DiVito, and it's pretty damn good. Bonus points for the game stats and adventure in the back of the variant edition.

Chew #15 - I love this comic book so much, I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant. #love30rocktoo

Wednesday I got All Star Superman, Two Generals and The Coffin 10th Anniversary HC. Pretty great haul. Two Generals in particular is *gorgeous* and All Star Superman is even better than I remembered it being.

Videogames:
'50s noir detectives in L.A. from the guys who made Red Dead Redemption? I'm in.

Politics:
I'm kinda with Maher on this one. I love Stewart and Colbert, loved the rally, but most of the "left is just as bad" arguments amount to false equivalence. It's not that there aren't crazies on the left, it's that the right has more of them, they're louder, and they're much more prone to inflaming dangerous action against those they disagree with.

If you still think Fox News and MSNBC are identical, just on different sides of the political spectrum, watch this for a key difference.

Weirdly, I think Fox is in the right, though. The left is going into these political knife-fights with one hand tied behind their back and no knife in the other one. If ethics aren't being applied on both side, I'm not sure the moral victory of "We lost, but kept our ethics" are worth it.

I'll say this for Rick Perry... he probably hasn't ever personally murdered any orphans. That we know of.

Full of win.