CBS Can Go To Hell:
At least Kidnapped is getting to finish out its story. CBS is cancelling Smith, which is probably my second favorite show behind Studio 60, and they're cutting it off without any warning, right before they go into the big heist next week.

This also probably means not enough episodes to even get a DVD release. Which really sucks. Not too surprising... Smith had a great cast, sharp writing and edgy subject matter. It's really only the kind of thing that's going to succeed on HBO. Which is where more and more of my viewing is going. I've also learned an important lesson, that it doesn't pay to invest any time in CBS's serials, since they're likely to pull them without any consideration for viewer payoff. Since the only other thing I'm watching on CBS is (or was) The Unit and Shark, I won't have any particular trouble just letting the network go entirely.

Studio 60 and The Nine are now the only new shows I'm excited about that remain on the air. It looks like Heroes is the big success story of the season, a shame since it's the one show that disappointed me after a promising start. Hopefully it'll start getting a lot better, fast, because it's most likely to be the show that sticks around. I'm also hoping that NBC and ABC will be smarter about letting their new shows build an audience, but after Kidnapped got a quick cancellation, I'm not holding my breath.

Then again, Kidnapped *really* had low ratings, and at least NBC did give the show's producers 10 more episodes to wrap up, which is forward-thinking in terms of promoting future serials. CBS just cut their best new shows out at the knees, and I'll remember that next year and the year after that at least when figuring out which new shows to try.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 11, 2006:

TOP FIVE:
DMZ #12 (After the strength of last issue, I'm doubly looking forward to the new issue of this one)
Dork #11 (Finally! At long last, a new issue of Dorkin's always interesting solo anthology book)
Escapists #4 (Runs neck and neck with Fables as the most anticipated read of the month for me)
Fables #54 (This latest visit to the Homelands has been every bit as engaging as the last, as we get some insight into the bad guys)
Twelve Reasons Why I Love Her GN (Fantastic romantic drama/comedy graphic novel. Review HERE)

THE REST:
Gen 13 #1 (On the plus side, it's Gail Simone... but I'm generally not crazy about the characters or the artist. Still, I'll give it a shot)
Pirates Of Coney Island #1 (This one looks like crazy fun, I'm looking forward to checking it out)
Side Scrollers GN (I've had a preview copy of this sitting around for a month or so, and I liked Loux's work on F-Stop, so I guess it's finally time to make time to read this)
Star Wars Legacy #4 (Needs to get a lot more focused and fast, because it's the first Ostrander book on the verge of losing me)
Steady Beat Vol 2 (Rivkah's long-awaited second volume in her Austin-based manga series)
Uncanny X-Men #479 (Continuing Brubaker and Tan's 12-issue story arc)
Worldstorm #1 (As I recall, this is mostly a preview book, but I'm curious to get more of a sense of Wildstorm's new relaunch)

One Down:
'Kidnapped' Headed for Early End

The bad news is, they're cancelling Kidnapped. The good news is, they're giving the producers the remaining 10 episodes to wrap it up, so hopefully it won't be another intended for long run serial that never gets an ending. Sure, the ending will probably be a little rushed, but 13 episodes isn't a bad amount of time to tell this story, and I'll stick with it through to the end.

Bummer, though. NBC being this quick on the draw with a good show sort of crushes any of my hopes that they might take a longer view, and probably spells the doom for my other favorite show this season, Studio 60.

30 Rock:


I was enjoying it based on Alec Baldwin's performance, and thinking "I'll give this a shot." Then I got to the last 10 seconds, with Tracy Morgan's performance, and I about died laughing. This one definitely goes on the viewing schedule.

New Fall Season - The Nine, Lost and more

I continue to be pleased and impressed with the new TV season. Now if only more people were. The mind boggles at what is getting big ratings (Deal or No Deal? Really? Isn't that just Millionaire, which nobody even *remembers* anymore, with hotter girls and a bald Howie Mandel?) and what isn't (if NBC cuts Studio 60 short, I'm gonna be pissed... mostly at the vast number of viewers who weren't tuning in but who spend their time watching Survivor: Race War or whatever godawful sitcom is running against it). The only downside of this season, which has thus far presented more great TV than I've seen in about three years, is that nobody seems to be watching all this great TV. It seems entirely likely that after a great development season, we could see all these promising shows cut down by low ratings, only to be replaced by worse shows next year.

How is Heroes (which I'm already getting bored with, two episodes in, and I'm a *superhero genre fan*) getting bigger ratings than Studio 60 (which continues to be great with each episode)? How does CSI, a dull procedural, beat out Smith, a clever and stylish show about the other side of the law? I'm not trying to say everybody should love what I love, but I sure as hell wish more people did, because it would stop all the entertainment I love from going away before I'm done with it. Selfish? Well, yeah. I'll admit that.

At any rate, tonight and Tuesday featured the premiere of some new stuff. In fact, I'm still catching up, since I don't watch TV on Tuesday nights, so I haven't watched the latest episodes of Kidnapped (another low-rated favorite), The Unit (which I can take or leave at this point) or Smith (which I'm planning on watching next). What I did watch tonight:

Lost - Tons more questions, and I'm dying to know more about The Others now. I'm actually pretty much OK with the rate at which the creators are doling out answers, as they offer up some hints but always raise more questions. The quality of the writing is such that I'm always pulled in. My only complaints about the season opener are twofold: 1) I really would have liked to see more of the rest of the cast, besides Jack, Sawyer and Kate, who are the most over-exposed and often-times least interesting members of the show and 2) I was kinda bored with Jack's flashback. It wasn't bad, by any means, always watchable, but I was never on the edge of my seat. Jack suffers from the "Cyclops" syndrome... he's the stable leader type, and so a lot of writers can do one of two modes. Either he's in full-on control, which is boring but noble, or he's on the verge of losing it from the pressure, which often comes off as whiny or self-indulgent. Jack is an interesting character, it's just that he's got a lot less interesting demons than most of the rest of the cast.

Oh, and I really would have liked a two-hour season opener, which probably could have answered both of my complaints, featuring more of the ensemble cast. Still... easily in my top five shows on TV, still.

The Nine - A new one, the follow-up to Lost, and all the buzz is definitely warranted. We've all seen the hostage drama and even some of these character archetypes before, but a talented cast, a clever twist in flipping the timeline so that the show basically starts a week after the robbery and some tricks learned from shows like 24 and Lost makes for a gripping drama with lots of mysteries. I worry about how they're going to sustain those mysteries without feeling like they're dragging them out, but as with Lost, it seems the core of the show is strong characters and strong writing, and seeing how people pick up their lives *after* a traumatic event like a hostage crisis is something we haven't really seen a lot of before. It's also perfect for serialization on TV, as opposed to the 2-hour movie format, which is pretty much perfect for the hostage drama itself.

Like I say, I wonder how this can sustain more than a season, maybe two, based on the premise, and remain satisfying. But I also wondered that about how anyone could sustain a story about a bunch of survivors crashed on an island, and that's working out quite well so far.

Veronica Mars - Lost and Battlestar Galactica both had recap shows to catch viewers up on what had gone before, but Veronica Mars is the one that really needed it, especially given it's uber-complicated season and finale last year. Still great, and Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars is one of the most watchable characters on TV, but I felt like a fresh viewing of season two would have clicked me into the show harder. It's definitely a continuation of the series, rather than a fresh start, and while I love that as a fan, I wonder if they might not have gone a slightly more accessible route for the hopefully large new fanbase they'll be getting from their new post-Gilmore Girls timeslot.

Here's hoping for big ratings, though, because I still love the show.

Revised Top 5, now that I've seen everything (except Battlestar Galactica, which starts Friday, and 30 Rock, which I'm now kind of curious about, which starts next Wednesday):

TOP FIVE SHOWS (NEW SHOWS ONLY):
1. Studio 60 on Sunset
2. The Nine
3. Kidnapped
4. Smith
5. Heroes, but it's on the verge of being a top 4

TOP TEN SHOWS (ALL SHOWS):
1. Studio 60 on Sunset
2. Lost
3. The Nine
4. Kidnapped
5. Smith
6. Veronica Mars
7. The Office

And no doubt Battlestar Galactica will fit somewhere after it premieres. If I had to go to 10, I'd probably slot in Doctor Who, My Name is Earl or The Unit, but while I enjoy all of those shows, any one of them could disappear and I wouldn't much care. Everything else on my Top 10, I'll be sad to see it go. And I'll be surprised if at least half of them don't get killed by networks unwilling to let a show build its audience. My guess would be that we'll lose Studio 60, Kidnapped and probably Smith. I can't guess at Veronica Mars or The Nine until we see ratings.

Thankfully, even if the networks fuck it all up by losing all these good shows, in January we'll have nonstop Lost, nonstop 24 and new Shield, and that's all good.

Blog Template Update for September
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.

September was a decompression month, in a lot of ways. The 20th anniversary celebration of Dragon's Lair was over, so that was a ton of stress gone, and basically things calmed down a bit. Of course, then we started having people in to remodel the kitchens and bathrooms, and organization for STAPLE! '07 started up, we launched Comic Pants and started planning for Wizard World Texas, and... OK, it was a decompression week and a half. At any rate, though, it was a good month, plenty of good comics, lots of good TV and a good first month for the new site.

Pretty solid, if unspectacular, month for comics in September. There weren't a ton of books that got cut to make my top 20, but there were a few. There weren't a lot of new first issues, but The Goon Noir, the first issue of True Story Swear to God at Image and Union Jack #1 were all solid openers.

Television, though, is really looking up. This was the best new Fall season in years, and I've got four new shows that I really like added to my viewing habits. I'm hoping that Kidnapped's relatively low ratings don't spell doom, as it's probably my second favorite show of the new season, right behind Studio 60. Smith is right behind that, and Heroes right behind that. And The Nine hasn't even started yet, and has been getting good buzz. I also finally discovered how funny The Office is - I'm almost through watching the second season DVDs, and the third season's first two episodes were great. I'm watching five NBC shows this year, six if you count Scrubs, which hasn't officially started yet. No FOX shows, since too much TV means Family Guy and Bones get cut due to time, and no ABC shows until Lost starts up. If The Nine is good, ABC and CBS are tied for second in my viewing, with two shows each. CBS has The Unit and Smith. CW has Veronica Mars. What's kind of amazing is that there's so much else I would watch, if I had unlimited time. Bones, Shark, the two CSIs I've seen (original flavor and Miami), Without A Trace, these are all solidly-produced, well-acted procedurals. If I wasn't more interested in serials, or if I had an eighth day of the week set aside just for TV, I'd probably watch them as well.

And that's not counting cable. Weeds season two on Showtime is great, I love Professional Poker Tour on Travel channel, Doctor Who just restarted on SciFi and Battlestar Galactica restarts this Friday. I'm about two months' behind on Daily Show and Colbert Report, and those may have to get cut from my regular viewing as well, not because I love them any less but because a four-day a week hourlong is just too much time commitment to watch. Might be time to switch to Youtube "Best Of" viewing like my buddy Dave Martindale.

Throw in 24 and The Shield starting early next year, and it's just a great time to be a TV fan. Probably the best level of quality of all the entertainment mediums I follow with what some might call an obsessive style. Certainly a better average than you get in either comics or movies these days. If only Arrested Development could have lived to see it.

For those who care, I've converted my RSS links into regular site links. I've also updated them according to what's in my actual newsreader feed at the moment, and I'll add and subtract each month as I keep discovering new artists and others with webpages. By the way, I know Will Pfeifer isn't an artist, but he's the only writer I keep up with at the moment, blog-wise, so for now he goes in with that group.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 4, 2006:
It's not a *great* week in terms of the amount of stuff I read, and I'm a little annoyed at the amount of indy stuff I've ordered that's running late (where the hell is Tim Truman's Scout TP?) and that Absolute New Frontier is shipping late as well... but there are a lot of books this week that I've either read and loved or are highly anticipating. Criminal alone makes this one of the best weeks of the year.

TOP FIVE:
Criminal #1 (I don't think there's anything more I can say about how good this book is. Podcast HERE, full review HERE.)
Doctor Strange Oath #1 (Always good to see somebody trying their hand at Dr. Strange, even better when it's Brian K. Vaughan and Javier Pulido. Expecting great things.)
Irredeemable Ant-Man #1 (Kirkman's writing has been hit or miss with me, but Phil Hester's art looks great, the premise sounds like fun and the preview pages were solid)
Other Side #1 (New writer offers up a script that the pros have been praising to high heaven, and it drew in Cameron Stewart on art, and his work looks amazing on the book. Looking forward to this Vietnam tale)
Y The Last Man #50 (The reveal at last... what killed all the men?)

THE REST:
Agents Of Atlas #3 (Second issue was even better than the first. Parker has an interesting modern conspiracy tale using older characters, and Kirk's art looks fantastic)
Beyond #4 (One of my favorite superhero series running right now, as Dwayne McDuffie shows everybody else how it's done)
Elephantmen #3 (Beautifully illustrated science-fiction that I liked before, but like even more in mostly monthly doses instead of annual ones)
Fear Agent #8 (I'd really like a stronger story arc structure, but there's a lot to like here)
Mystery In Space #2 (First issue wasn't half bad, I'll give the second a read)
PVP #28 (More Scott Kurtz humor)
Savage Brothers #2 (Solid, funny first issue featured a new twist on the zombie genre)

Iron Man is...
Apparently, Robert Downey Jr. is the new Iron Man. I've gotta say, it wouldn't have been my first choice, but after thinking on it for a few moments, I think it's a good one. Potentially great, actually.

You'd Think I'd Be Used to It:
Given the way comics and TV that I love routinely fail to catch on and die before I'm done with them, but it still surprises and saddens me each time. This story in the Hollywood Reporter paints a grim picture of ratings for this new season, which is one of the best I've seen in a couple years.

Mentioned as potential goners are almost everything I've enjoyed, from Smith to Kidnapped to Studio 60. Kidnapped, as a serialized drama, would be particularly annoying, although Studio 60 is the one that, if it goes, may drive me even further to just watching HBO, F/X and other cable networks that tend to let the audience grow a little more than the quick to cancel broadcast networks.

The New Fall Season - continuing evaluation:
Tonight I watched Heroes (third time total, second time watching the butchered... excuse me, edited for time... version). I liked it on third viewing, and the teaser at the end gives me great hope, but I saw some of the flaws more clearly on third viewing as well, and I really, really think the network would have been wise to give them a 2-hour timeslot to launch with, so they could show the excellent pilot I saw in San Diego. There should be more on Heroes in this week's Comic Pants podcast, unless plans change between now and tomorrow night.

Also watched Studio 60. That one has a pilot I watched five times, and I loved it more each time. The second episode didn't bowl me over continuously the way the first episode did, but it got me good at all the right moments and the final five minutes were killer. As long as Aaron Sorkin is working in television, I'll be watching it.

Was kind of annoyed with the darkness on Heroes and, to a lesser extent, Studio 60. I don't know if my TV is fading out, if NBC was broadcasting darker or if Heroes was shot too dark, but I noticed it here and didn't when I watched the online version of Heroes, so I'm suspecting it's NBC (I hope, and hope it's corrected) or my TV (I hope not, because I really can't afford to buy a new one, despite how much I want one).

EW's feature on Battlestar Galactica and the Galactica webisodes have me jonesing for the October 6 third season premiere, but of course the third season I'm most anticipating is also in that week, as Lost starts up a mini-arc before disappearing into January.

It's a good time to be a TV fan.

TV Update - Reviews Part 2:

Pretty happy with the TV right now. Standoff had a supremely weak second show which, combined with its weak premise and misuse of a good cast and schedule conflict with The Unit and Veronica Mars, means it's killed from my viewing, even in DVD. Wouldn't surprise me if it gets the chop before midseason. Justice was also formulaic, way too predictable and yet unreal and a waste of a good cast, and it's on up against Lost, so good riddance to that one as well. Both FOX shows, by the way, which leaves me with... two FOX shows, Bones and Family Guy, both of which I might just stop watching as they're not favorites in any way. Arrested Development really was the only must-watch show in FOX's line-up, and given how kill-happy they've been with shows I love before (like Firefly), I can't say I'm sorry to more or less kiss the network goodbye for a season or two.

NBC, on the other hand, is kicking ass this season. Something about the Jim/Pam will-they/won't they teaser caught my eye, so I rented Season One and Season Two of The Office from Netflix. And it's so much better than I expected. Season Two is where everything started to gel, and it developed its own personality separate from the British version. I'm two discs in, and I've found myself watching the deleted scenes and commentaries, and considering picking up the DVD set, which is a rarity for comedies. Combine with My Name is Earl, which usually makes me laugh and is always watchable, and NBC has the only sitcoms (or half-hour shows) I'm watching.

They also have a great new slate of shows. Heroes and Kidnapped have solid pilots with a lot of potential, and Studio 60 is easily the best new show of a pretty strong new season.

I also forgot that Doctor Who is starting back up on SciFi, and while I'm not as big on that as I am on Battlestar Galactica, I liked it enough to watch it on Tivo. As for what I've watched since last update:

The Unit (CBS) - Weak opener, and it's become way too clear that unlike Shawn Ryan's other show, The Shield, this one is going to be all about maintaining status quo. There's some clumsy writing to put Jonas quickly back in the field and bring Mac and his wife back into the fold, and while there are some great turns of phrase (it's Mamet, what do you expect?), it never quite becomes exciting TV. The Unit is kind of like CSI or any of those procedural shows, slickly produced but without the heart that shows willing to take chances like Battlestar Galactica, The Shield and Lost have. I'll still watch, but only until Veronica Mars takes over the timeslot.

My Name is Earl (NBC) - Talked about this in general above, but the season opener has some very funny gags. The culmination of the show, as Earl relates the end of Joy's story with "that was my second guess" had me laughing out loud.

The Office (NBC) - Fantastic opener, again with the status quo change (however temporary) that introduces new characters, puts new spins on older ones and offers great, subtle character moments along with a ton of laugh out loud humor. Second only to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for half-hour comedies on the air right now. At least, of the ones I watch, because clearly it takes me some time to find sitcoms.

Shark (CBS) - The buzz on this was that it was weak and formulaic, saved only by the acting chops of James Woods. So I was pleasantly surprised by it. I mean, it is a weaker show, a procedural that probably won't hold my interest for more than a season, but it has some fun moments, and James Woods really does make it worth watching. I'd rather see him in a more interesting premise (bounty hunting with Greg Grunberg, maybe?), but I'll watch him here, as long as nothing else cuts in on the timeslot or I don't wind up with too much else to watch. It'll get cut from viewing after I cut Bones and Family Guy, at any rate.

There's been some good buzz on Jericho, but honestly, I just can't even work up the enthusiasm to watch it. If it goes more than one season, seems to be heading towards some sort of conclusion and keeps getting good buzz, I'll check it out on DVD... but I'll be surprised if that happens.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 27, 2006:

TOP FIVE:
Conan Ultimate Guide To Savage Barbarian HC (Great hardcover guide to Conan. Full review HERE.)
Jack Of Fables #3 (Another great issue, this book lives up to the quality of the main Fables comic)
Losers Endgame TP (The conclusion of Diggle & Jock's great modern action book)
Ragnars Kings Of The Road (New book from artist/designer Ragnar... not entirely sure what to expect, but his art is always beautiful)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #1 (Tom Beland relaunches his humor/romance book at Image)

THE REST:
American Virgin #7 (Hasn't gotten any less weird, but continues to be intriguing and beautifully drawn)
Batman #657 (Losing interest fast... kind of glad to see an Ostrander/Mandrake fill-in coming)
Batman And The Mad Monk #2 (Another solid entry in Matt Wagner's Batman miniseries)
Captain America #22 (Will Civil War kill my interest in one of the few remaining Marvel books I read? After reading CW #4, I'm gonna guess yes, and hope no)
Daredevil #89 (This one, thankfully, is mostly clear of Civil War... and has been great)
Eternals #4 (Also clear of Civil War... #3 was a dip in quality, but the rest has been very entertaining)
Invincible #35 (Still enjoying this book, for the most part)
Justice League Of America #2 (#1 had some things to recommend it... I'll read #2 as well, waiting for the other shoe to drop)
Northwest Passage #3 (Scott Chantler's two-fisted tales of Canadian history conclude!)
Previews #26.10 (Down the Line coming next week)
Secret Six #4 (Considerably weaker than Villains United, still the best substitute for new Suicide Squad that we're gonna get)
She-Hulk 2 #12 (Civil War weakening my interest in all things Marvel Universe, but I'm still enjoying this book for now)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #10 (Counting down until we lose Takeshi Miyazawa, unfortunately... but I'll enjoy it while I can)
Ultimates 2 #12 (Curious to see how this one wraps... probably six or eight months from now.)
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #3 (Enjoyed the first two issues, curious to see whether it will continue to entertain)
Usagi Yojimbo #97 (Always enjoyable, one of the most solidly crafted comics out there)

Weekly Comics to Come - September 20, 2006:

TOP FIVE:
Dwight T Albatross The Goon Noir #1 (All-star Goon anthology starts here)
Godland Vol 2 Another Sunny Delight TP (Hooray! More Godland in trade means more Godland issues coming soon!)
Runaways #20 (I know everyone is super-excited about Whedon, but I'm mostly hoping that Vaughan gives his run on the book a good wrap-up of sorts, because I'm not entirely sold on Whedon's comics work, despite being a huge fan of his TV work)
Shadowpact #5 (Another great issue, this one is turning into a favorite of mine)
Union Jack #1 (Very solid action-packed first issue, with amazing art from Mike Perkins)

THE REST:
Birds Of Prey #98 (The new Batgirl mystery deepens, and it's a really interesting story)
Conan #32 (Another chapter in "Born on the Battlefield" by Busiek and Ruth)
Exiles #86 (The all-Wolverine squad vs. The Exiles... should be fun)
Lonely Heart Art Of Tara Mcpherson HC (Dark Horse does great art books, McPherson does great art)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #5 (Tony Bedard takes over writing and pits the Avengers against Loki and the Wrecker)
O.C.T.: Occult Crimes Taskforce #2 (Enjoyed the first issue, and the wait for number two has killed some of my enthusiasm, but not all of it)
Owly Plush Toy (I bought one of these for my daughter in San Diego... they're great)
Playboy Interviews The Directors TP (Playboy interviews are great, and the list of interviewees is impressive)
Walking Dead #31 (I'm kind of ready for the wrap-up of this current storyline, but that's mostly because Kirkman is really building tension)
Wetworks #1 (Not expecting a great deal here, as I'm not a huge Portacio fan, but... paramilitary dudes in armor vs. horror monsters *is* a great concept)
X-Men First Class #1 (Not a fan of Roger Cruz's art, but the writer is Jeff Parker, who does such a great job on Marvel Adventures: Avengers and Agents of Atlas)

Damn:
Former Texas governor Ann Richards died today. And George W. Bush, who replaced her in an election that *still* breaks my heart to this day, is still alive.

The world ain't fair, folks.

What the fuck?
San Francisco State Arabic Professor barred from re-entering U.S. - So let me get this straight... he's teaching Arabic courses, which is more useful in the "war on terror" than the majority of the Bush Administration's crazy schemes, he's got a wife and kids in the U.S., there's no suspicion of any terror links (or you know that the State Department would be bringing it up as fast as possible)... and they ban him from re-entering the country? Without a timeline?

You know, if somebody tried to lock me out of the country where my wife and child lived, I'd go berserk.

TV Update - Reviews:

Thanks to the networks getting a lot more free about previewing their shows, I've had the chance to see a few of the shows I was excited about. So far, the season is looking pretty good:

Smith (CBS): This one is available on Google Video, and it's well worth a look. The cast is great, Ray Liotta shines on TV, and there's some nice, dark modern crime caper stuff going on. Oh, and I loved Amy Smart on Scrubs, but she's even better here as a femme fatale. It's not quite at the level of, say, Heat, or what I've seen of Brubaker & Phillips' Criminal, but it's damn good.

Studio 60 (NBC): Netflix now has available a DVD that has Studio 60 and Kidnapped, two NBC shows, on disc. It's also available as a streaming preview from AOL. I watched Studio 60 for the second time, and I'm even more convinced that it's gonna be the best new show of the season. Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet in particular are fantastic, but there are already hints of a great ensemble in the "Big Three" (D.L. Hughley, Nate Corddry and Sarah Paulson) and there's not a weak link in the cast.

Kidnapped (NBC): This one was also a really entertaining first episode. Jeremy Sisto is quite the badass as a young retrieval specialist for hire, Delroy Lindo is cool as hell (as always) and there's some nice style, action and tension at work. There's a jump-cut editing/directing style that reminds me of Tony Scott, which I like but which might put some people off. Jason Smilovic, who wrote the first episode and is either exec producer or at least one of the producers, has a pedigree that includes Karen Sisco, so I'm inclined to keep an eye on this one.

Add in Heroes, which I've already seen and really liked, and that's four new shows that look really good, alongside Veronica Mars, Lost, and Battlestar Galactica (back in October!)... plus the strong buzz on The Nine, and that's a lot of great TV this season. Three of those new shows are NBC... I don't know what happened in development this season, but it was a good thing for that network.

Fall TV Preview 2006:
Entertainment Weekly has done theirs, so now it's time to do mine. For those who care (and I know that might be none of you), here's Randy's Fall TV Preview. All times are central, because that's my time zone.

TOP FIVE SHOWS I'M ANTICIPATING (NEW SHOWS ONLY):
1. Studio 60 on Sunset
2. Heroes
3. Smith
4. The Nine
5. Kidnapped

TOP FIVE SHOWS I'M ANTICIPATING (ALL SHOWS):
1. Studio 60 on Sunset
2. Lost
3. Heroes
4. Smith
5. Veronica Mars

ALREADY STARTED:
Fox got a jump on new TV this year, and they've already launched several of their shows. I have Tivo'ed but not yet watched the first two episodes of Bones (7 pm Wednesdays), Tivo'ed late and not yet gotten any episodes of Justice (8 pm Wednesdays) and Tivo'ed and watched the first episode of Standoff (8 pm Tuesdays).

Bones is like CSI or Law & Order with more of a sense of humor. David Boreanaz, who made his name playing moody and morose on Angel, is surprisingly fun as the witty, relatively lighthearted FBI agent Booth, and the team of scientist "squints" he works with, headed by Dr. Temperance Brennan (played by Emily Deschanel, sister of Zooey), are quirky and entertaining to watch. The runaway supporting character is artistic, sexy, funny Angela Montenegro, played by Michaela Conlin. The episodic nature of the show, not to mention its crime procedural nature, make it unlikely to ever become a huge favorite of mine, but I always enjoy watching it, and will if there's nothing else opposite.

Justice I'm watching for the cast (Victor Garber in a starring role, plus Eamonn Walker) but probably won't watch as soon as something goes on opposite. Standoff is the same way, as it features Gina Torres and Ron Livingston. I liked the first episode, and there's good chemistry between Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt, but as with Bones, it doesn't quite reach above solidly put together and well cast. One of those shows I'll watch as long as I don't have too much else to watch or there isn't something else on opposite.

Family Guy also starts again as of tonight at 9 pm. I always enjoy the show, although I haven't watched it for a while.

STARTING NEXT WEEK:
Studio 60 on Sunset (NBC, Mondays at 9, starting Sept. 18) - I've already seen this one online through the miracle of Youtube and a well-timed heads-up from Zack Smith, and I'll be very surprised if it doesn't turn out to be the best new show of the season. Take all the best of West Wing and Sportsnight, add in another amazing cast for writer/showrunner Aaron Sorkin to write for and you've got a great hourlong drama that is also hilariously funny and remarkably smart. I've already seen the pilot online, and I'm still chomping at the bit to watch it again when it finally airs.

The Unit (CBS, Tuesdays at 8, starting Sept. 19) - A military spec ops show crossed with a more serious Desperate Housewives. You'd think that a show by David Mamet and Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield) and starring Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer of 24) would be can't miss, must-watch entertainment. But while the show is very good, and I found myself an avid follower, it's not quite the crack-addiction level of TV that The Shield or Lost are for me. I'll be watching, though, at least until Veronica Mars starts running opposite in October, at which point The Unit becomes DVD watching.

Smith (CBS, Tuesdays at 9, starting Sept. 19) - Ray Liotta as a career criminal, Virginia Madsen as his wife who doesn't know the truth, Shohreh Aghdashloo as the leader of the crew... that's amazing casting, and the buzz from those who've seen it is that it's great. Basically, it sounds like Heat: The TV series, and if done right, that could be a very good thing.

Kidnapped (NBC, Wednesdays at 8, starting Sept. 20) - The teenage son of a wealthy couple is kidnapped, and the show unfolds as a "hired gun" (played by Jeremy Sisto) and FBI agent (played by Delroy Lindo) try to get him back. Again, critical buzz is good, so I'll give this one a chance, at least until October, when it's up against Lost. At that point, if I like it, I'll watch it on my office TV or wait for DVDs.

My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC, Thursdays at 7, starting Sept. 21) - I watched Earl all of last season and, while it's no Arrested Development or Seinfeld, it does have some of the same comedic appeal and watchability of Friends at its best. I fell off watching The Office, but it's gotten so much critical love, and I did like some elements of it when I watched it, that I want to give it another chance. Especially since I'm a huge Steve Carrell fan, and I like Ed Helms, who is joining the show for 10 episodes this season.

Shark (CBS, Thursdays at 9, starting Sept. 21) - It's James Woods playing a defense attorney who has a crisis of conscience and goes to work for the prosecutor. I'm no huge fan of legal dramas in general, but the write-up in EW, not to mention the fact that it's James Woods, means I'll give it a look. The only thing running opposite that I'm even mildly interested in is Six Degrees, which has a good cast and J.J. Abrams as executive producer, but it sounds basically like a New York real-life drama, and that's not a genre I'm really interested in without some kind of twist.

STARTING LATER:
Heroes (NBC, Mondays at 8, starting Sept. 25) - I saw the 72 minute version of the pilot in San Diego and thought it was really great. Saw the 52 minute (or whatever it is) that they're going to actually run on iTunes and thought it was merely good. They cut out two characters, one of whom is the great Greg Grunberg, and tightened up the story to such a degree that it feels too fast to me. A lot of the tension is gone, and I wasn't fond of the cuts made, and I think NBC would have been smarter to bite the bullet and give them a two hour or hour and a half spot for the first episode. But the other characters will show up in episode two, I'm sure, and there's still a lot to like about this well-cast, well-written and well-shot show.

Veronica Mars (CW, Tuesdays at 8, starting Oct. 3) - The series got a 13-episode pickup, and in both San Diego and print stories, there's definitely been a sense of "If we don't pick up ratings after Gilmore Girls, we're gone," but I'm hoping this will be the year the show finally catches on with a wider audience. It's smart, has a great cast and the best father/daughter relationship on television. This year it's supposed to be structured as 3 smaller mysteries, rather than one gigantic sprawling one, and that can only be a good thing. Even as a diehard fan of the show, I found some of last year's plotting a little byzantine.

Lost (ABC, Wednesdays at 8, starting Oct. 4) - The best show on television (barring The Shield, which runs off-season and thus doesn't count in this comparison) returns. I loved season two as much (if not more) than season one, can't wait to see more mysteries resolved and yet more unfold and can't wait for more great characterization, excellent writing and terrific acting.

The Nine (ABC, Wednesdays at 9, starting Oct. 4) - The buzz on this show from critics is strong, the cast is solid (including Tim Daly, Kim Raver, Scott Wolf and Chi McBride) and the premise intriguing. Basically, it takes place after a bank robbery/hostage situation, and explores nine people affected by the robbery, along with flashbacks to what happened during the situation. Interesting premise, interesting structure, good cast, critical buzz... I'm surprisingly intrigued by this one.

Act-i-Vate Wave 3

Act-i-vate Wave 3:
The cool as hell "virtual studio" Act-i-vate has added their newest members, and it's a great group. I'm a fan of Mike Dawson's since I read his Gabagool!, and I'm delighted to learn that there's more of Jason Little's creation Bee, whose adventurers were published in a terrific hardcover called Shutterbug Follies. In fact, in addition to the four pages on Act-i-vate, you can see more episodes of Bee, and several complete comics, on Jason Little's site.

And the new feature "the other muse," which started today, is fun reading as well. Act-i-vate has been impressive since the beginning, and their third wave adds another level of promising talent. Go, read. You won't be sorry.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 13, 2006:

TOP FIVE:
American Born Chinese SC (I'll have a full review of this on Comic Pants soon, but if you want a review right now, you can check out what Greg McElhatton had to say. The usual excellent First Second production values on a well-crafted, fun and insightful story)
Escapists #3 (I love Vaughan's work, and I think this is my favorite thing he's writing right now. Gorgeous artwork, too)
Fables #53 (It's my favorite book. I've read this issue already, and it's another great story. Terrific 3-page backup tale with Josh Middleton art, too)
Pride Of Baghdad HC (I'm excited by this because of how excited Vaughan is about it, and because the art looks amazing. I was going to try and wait out a softcover, but it's reasonably priced for a hardcover, and I've gotten so interested in the story that I have to read it as soon as I can get my hands on it)
DMZ #11 (One-shot revealing the story of Zee, with guest art by Kristian of Supermarket fame. I've seen his pencilled artwork, and it's amazing)

THE REST:
Captain America #21 (The Twenty-First Century Blitz, possibly my favorite story in Brubaker's run, concludes this issue)
Casanova #4 (It's bizarre, and I'm not always entirely sure I'm following the story... but I really dig the vibe, and love the art)
Ex Machina #23 (Another interesting arc... the book reads better in trades, but it's always a great read)
Journey Into Mohawk Country SC (An illustrated account of a Dutch trader's venture into Mohawk Country... off-beat, intriguing and beautifully illustrated from First Second Books)
Making Comics SC (Re-Inventing Comics was disappointing, but Understanding Comics was amazing, so I'm onboard for McCloud's latest, at least in theory)
Phonogram #2 (First issue was... weird. But I did like the vibe enough to give the second issue a try)
Sam Noir Samurai Detective #1 (It's a great concept, I've got to see if the creators can pull it off)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game #3 (Having trouble enjoying in single issues, but I expect I'll really enjoy the collection)
Silent Ghost #1 (Mystical kung-fu comic with art by Brett Weldele, I'm curious to check this out)
Star Wars Legacy #3 (Long delay between issues, and I'm still not sold on the series... hope it picks up soon, as Ostrander/Duursema are creators I really like)
Talent #3 (Fantastic conspiracy thriller with great art by Paul Azaceta, one of the best books in Boom's impressive stable)
Wasteland #3 (Loving this book so far, can't wait to see what happens next)

Help Lea Hernandez:
This is all over the Internet. But in case you haven't seen it yet, I repost it here, because it's important that *everyone* know about it. I'm off to send some money via Paypal right now.

"Early this morning, the Texas home of award-winning writer/artist Lea Hernandez, my friend and co-creator of the graphic novel Killer Princesses, caught fire and burned. Half her house is now gone, and the rest is smoke-damaged. In addition, she lost at least six of her family’s beloved pets, two dogs and four cats. If you knew Lea, you’d know how devastating that is.

She’s lost a great deal of her family’s possessions, including irreplaceable art. She doesn’t yet know the full accounting of what’s been lost at this time.

Most know Lea as the brilliant creator of such works as Rumble Girls and Cathedral Child. She drew the Marvel Mangaverse PUNISHER book, and has drawn for TRANSMETROPOLITAN, among many other accomplishments. She is also the co-founder and original editor for GIRL-A-MATIC, one of the most important venues for female-friendly comics created to date.

She’s also my friend, and it’s entirely possible I wouldn’t have a career in comics if she hadn’t asked me to write Killer Princesses for her to draw.

And finally, Lea is one of the last great firebrand hellraisers in comics.

Lea has two (wonderful, amazing) special needs children and right now they need a place to stay and some clothes to wear. More than that, they need
some help, and fast, in the form of donations to her paypal account. Lea’s a proud person so I’m going to ask FOR her. This is important, and a great chance to do a wonderful thing for a creator who has consistently enriched this industry we all love so much. Please, take a moment and send WHATEVER YOU CAN to Lea’s paypal account and help make this time a little bit less painful for someone who would do the same for you if the positions were reversed.

If you’re a retailer, I ask that you set up a donations jar. If you’re a creator, I ask you to think of how devastating this would be to your career and donate what you can. If you’re a reader, I’m asking you to take a moment and hit the paypal link. You’ll be doing something heroic and you’ll feel great about it, I promise.

Read what Lea had to post on a neighbor’s computer while wearing her pajamas at: Livejournal.com/users/divalea

Donate (PLEASE) to her paypal account at: divalea@gmail.com

Finally, if I understand the story correctly (as told to me by Lea’s good friend and current Girl-a-matic editor), it was Lea’s daughter hearing the smoke alarm that allowed the family to get out in time, so for God’s sake, do everyone you love a favor and CHECK YOUR SMOKE ALARMS.

Thank you so much for helping. Really, any amount you can send will make a difference. That’s all I can say.

Sincerely and gratefully,

Gail Simone"

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!:
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, ADRIAN ALPHONA LEAVE RUNAWAYS WITH #24

Seriously, I love all of Vaughan's work, and I'm pleased that he seems to be leaving in order to do more creator-owned work (as opposed to, say, taking over Spectacular Spider-Man or something unworthy of his talents like that), I'll be really sad to see him leave Runaways. The replacement creative team will have to be fucking amazing...

Blog Template Update for August
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.

August was in some ways a bit of a down month, with some fairly sparse weeks, but there were gems in almost every week, and I found myself again having a tough time cutting down to a top 20 from a top 32 or so. As you all probably know by now, August was also the last month Fourth Rail will be updated, and the first month (or at least, the last couple days) of Comic Pants, the new comic reviewing site I'm involved with. It was also the month in which Dragon's Lair, where I work, celebrated its 20th anniversary with comic guests and more, and that was pretty busy and fun.

This month, there weren't a lot of new series launched that I found all that interesting. Monkey vs. Lemur was a fun one-shot, as was Eberron: Eye of the Wolf, and Batman and the Mad Monk and Savage Brothers were both good intros for new limited series, but I don't think any new ongoings of note launched in August. Of course, that's speaking as someone without much interest in Justice League of America or Heroes for Hire, which were definitely the two biggest launches from Marvel and DC for the month.

Lots of folks are griping about summer TV, but they must not have cable. With Entourage and Deadwood both having excellent seasons, Weeds season two starting off strong, the camp-but-fun Who Wants To Be A Superhero, solid sci-fi in USA's 4400 and regular doses of Daily Show and Colbert Report, I'm having trouble keeping up with the Tivo. That's not even mentioning the four-part special Feasting on Asphalt with Alton Brown, how addicted I've become to Travel Channel's Professional Poker Tour or the love I found for the darker, meaner Seinfeld, F/X's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 7, 2006:
That's not a typo... comics are delayed by a day this week thanks to Labor Day. That means the Wednesday Number Ones feature on Comic Pants will be a Thursday Number Ones feature instead. But don't worry, there'll be plenty of reviews before that. Anyway, another small-ish week.

TOP FIVE:
Local #6 (Read a preview copy, and it's fantastic... best issue of the series so far)
Museum Of Terror Vol 2 (Not as great as Uzumaki or even Gyo, but still solid horror manga from Junji Ito)
Surrogates Vol 1 Tp (Fantastic, full-color sci-fi from Top Shelf)
Uncanny X-men #478 (The only one of my top five I haven't already read, but I'm digging on the Brubaker/Tan X-Men right now)
Y The Last Man #49 (Less than a year to go, and the story is ramping up)

THE REST:
Agents Of Atlas #2 (Great art, interesting story, I'm onboard for more)
American Splendor #1 (A little disappointing, but with some nice art)
Detective Comics #823 (Another done-in-one from Dini... I'm not wholly onboard, but I'm still reading)
GI Joe Scarlett Declassified (Interior art by Phil Noto + my soft spot for GI Joe = reading)
Lone Ranger #1 (I have a certain fondness for the Lone Ranger character as well)
Noble Causes #23 (A thoroughly underrated and always entertaining book)
Rush City #2 (First issue was solid action, I expect the second to be more of the same, but guest-starring Black Canary for bonus points)

Good Week:
Comic Pants launched to great success, and I'm feeling more energized about my writing than I have in quite some time as a result.

My little girl started preschool, and seems to be enjoying it and doing well.

I've finally started catching up on Rescue Me, and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. I also have a ton of DVDs to watch, including Arrested Development Vol. 3 and The Tick Season One (cartoon).

The 20th anniversary went off great, and was a huge success.

Things are good at work, at home and in my virtual life on the Internet. For now, life is good.

Get Pantsed:
Well, it's all over the Internet at this point, so I'd be surprised if anyone read about it for the first time here, but...

Don and I are shutting down The Fourth Rail, and I've helped launch a new review site called Comic Pants. I'm very excited about the new place.

Dragon's Lair 20th Anniversary:
This weekend, Dragon's Lair (the shop where I'm one of the managers) celebrated its 20th anniversary. I've only been working there six years, but that's still a fair bit of time, so I'm pretty invested in the store and was hoping for a good event. It went off great. There were a few hitches, like Josh Howard being unable to come or Matt Sturges (co-writer of Jack of Fables) having to bail on his Round Rock appearance to spend some family time, but overall, it was a great event.

I got to drive around Gail Simone and her husband, Scott, picking them up from the airport and taking them to and from the party on Friday night. Gail and Scott are both extremely nice people, and fun to talk to, and even though I probably got to talk to them over the course of about an hour throughout the weekend, I was still wishing for more time. Gail also had a huge turnout of fans, and she signed all their books and talked to them and everybody had a terrific time.

Gail was paired in the signings with Scott Kurtz, creator of PVP. Scott also had a pretty big crowd, and I know we turned a few people into fans that day as well. Scott was kind enough to do a sketch in my "Monkeys, Pirates, Ninjas and Robots" theme book, as well. Also signing with that pair was local writer Jeff Stevenson, who had with him copies of his new Image/Shadowline book Task Force One and his self-published book Steampunk Fairies.

We have three stores (one in Round Rock, one in Austin, one in San Antonio), so we had three drivers ferrying the creators to each shop. Our next signing in Round Rock was at 2:00, and featured two members of the Royal Academy of Illustration and Design, Cameron Stewart and Chip Zdarsky. They too were busy the whole time, sketching and signing. In fact, I never got to get my sketchbook to either one, as they were busy drawing for customers and for a couple of the other employees. But I already have two sketches from Cameron in my sketchbook, and I didn't want to be greedy. Poor Cameron and Chip were driving around in Texas in an un-air conditioned car, too... they got the real Texas experience.

Finally, from 6:00 to 8:00, we had Kristian, artist of the IDW book Supermarket and the upcoming DMZ #11. He had prints with him that sold fairly well, as well as a few issues of Supermarket, and he also was doing sketches the whole time. He was nice enough to do a sketch in my theme sketchbook as well. After the whole thing finished, most of the employees (save Dave Farabee, the other manager, who stayed to close up shop) went to dinner along with Kristian and one of our customers, David Figueroa, who had been taking pictures for us all day. In fact, I've put up all the pictures he took as a flickr set.

From there, it was off to the Live Art Show, being put on by my good friend Chris Nicholas at Club Deville. It was a great show, with several local artists alongside Chip, Cameron and Kristian. Everybody did beautiful work, and me and my group bought a ton of art. Dave Martindale bought one of Kristian's pieces, and I bought the other one. David Figueroa bought two of Cameron's pieces, and Nick Budd bought the other one. Even Kristian bought some art, picking up a nice piece from Miss Monster.

At around 2:00, the bar closed down, and I gave Kristian and our Dragon's Lair event organizer Jillian Gowen a ride back to his car so they could head out to a party. I was invited to come, but it was late, and I'm old, so I went home and got to sleep at about 2:30 instead. It was a great time, though, and although it was a long day (from about 8:00 am until 2:30 am) on Saturday, it was well worth it.

Pantheon High:
My buddy Paul Benjamin is interviewed over at Newsarama about his new Tokyopop series, Pantheon High. I've seen some of the pages from it, and it looks great. Go take a look!

Weekly Comics to Come - August 30, 2006:
Wow, tiny, tiny week for me. There's Lost Girls, of course, but I still haven't decided if I'm going to drop $75 on that bad boy, I'm going to let Dave play guinea pig and try to sneak a peek at his copy.

TOP FIVE:
All Star Superman #5 (More Silver Age style wackiness from Morrison and Quitely... it's late, but it's not All Star Batman and Robin late)
American Virgin #6 (Been a while since we saw an issue of this one, too... but it's always a good read)
Civil War Young Avengers & Runaways #2 (First issue was a solid pairing of the teams, and skimmed past most of my annoyance with the Civil War premise)
She-Hulk 2 #11 (Following up on the story from the Marvel Westerns: Two-Gun Kid special, I've been wanting to see that for a while now)
Usagi Yojimbo #96 (Looks like the new assassin is on Usagi's trail)

THE REST:
Previews Vol #26.9 (New Down the Line should be up sometime next week or week after)
Solo #12 (Sorry to see the book end, even sorrier that the last issue doesn't feature an artist that I have a pre-existing fondness for. I can't help but think of how many great artists never got their shot at this book)
Star Wars Rebellion #3 (Solid Star Wars classic era adventure)

It Occurs to Me:
When looking at Marc-Oliver Frisch's analysis of DC sales over at The Beat, that there's a very easy snapshot of the comics market to be had. The vast majority of the market, sadly, is only interested in superheroes and don't have much interest in branching out. Because the easiest, most accessible diversion from superheroes for adult readers is probably DC's Vertigo line, which features high quality, the same production values and even elements that make it similar enough to superheroes for an easy transition, but the numbers are just miles apart. Witness:

Justice League (the top-selling DC book for the month)? 160,000 readers
Fables (the top-selling Vertigo book for the month)? 27,000 readers

Now, it's not hard science or anything, but it's probably fair to say, looking at this, that the audience for superhero comics is over five times larger than the audience for non-superhero comics. At best.

That's a shame, and probably as good an indicator as any of what the small press is up against these days. They're competing for a pool that is, at its strongest, maybe 30,000 readers strong. You know, just slightly the level where DC and Marvel generally start thinking superhero books aren't doing well and need cancelling.

Of course, there's the bookstore market, which hopefully is a large, new pool of readers that are probably more interested in non-superhero stuff, but still... kind of depressing.

It also occurs to me I've mostly been bitching on this site for the last few posts, so the next one will definitely contain good news and good stuff. Certainly there's been plenty of that fairly recently as well.

When I Meet Him, I'm Gonna Kick His Ass:
I refer, of course, to the gremlin plaguing my life of late.

The good news is that after all my worrying about returning the HTIB and such to Best Buy, I went in and the customer service could not have been better. Everyone was very nice and helpful, one guy spent a fair amount of time in the home theatre section showing me the various DVD players, another helped me locate Rogue's Gallery, the new album of sea shanty covers (weird, I know, but it sounded interesting) and I walked out of there with a new, one-disc player from Sony that should have been easy to hook up and worked perfectly with Katy's controller.

Caught the should have, did you?

After the luck I've been having with electronics lately, I don't know why I was surprised. It took me all of five minutes to get the DVD player hooked up, and I was so happy... except that I noticed a loud buzzing sound whenever there wasn't other sound on the screen to cover it. When people were talking, or music was playing, etc., I could hear the occasional pop of static or an underlying buzz, but when it was supposed to be silent, there was a loud sound of interference. After doing some experimenting, I came to the conclusion that I had picked a defective player. The jacks worked with everything else (PS/2, TV, VCR), whether I used the switcher or not made no difference, it was obviously the DVD player. Somehow, I had magically picked the broken one.

Suzanne took pity on me and said she'd go exchange it tomorrow. Hopefully she'll have better luck.

Of course, she's been suffering today with a remarkably spotty Internet connection, and I ran into that when I got home as well. It would literally be up one minute and down the next, making Internet use extremely frustrating. It seems to be working better now, but I'm starting to feel like I really do have a gremlin messing with my stuff.

You Can't Fight Entropy:
After Suzanne came home and told me that she knew about the broken toilet and fixed it, I was starting to feel a little bit better about everything breaking. Maybe it was just a blessing in disguise, and I could get a good stereo system and the wireless headphones I'd been wanting, and this was just the right excuse.

Hah. Foolish mortal.

So I spent the better part of Sunday night researching HTIB (Home Theatre in a Box) systems online, after taking a quick glance around Best Buy that afternoon to get a general vibe. I had a few in mind, but generally decided I wanted the Panasonic SC-HT940, if the outputs would work. I could get it from Circuit City, with the wireless adapter, for about $500, and pick it up the next day, and pick up a good pair of wireless headphones for about $45 on Amazon. Not bad.

But I wanted to check the outputs, and make sure that was what I wanted, so I headed out to Best Buy on Monday. The guy there was very helpful, and after trying to steer me towards a more complicated receiver (which I didn't want, I wanted the convenience of HTIB, even if that wasn't the best possible sound), he helped me figure out that the Panasonic would work. Picked that up, with the adapter for wireless rear speakers and a wireless pair of headphones, plus a 4-year maintenance plan (hey, I just had a DVD player die on me after a year). Grand total about $900, a valuable lesson in shopping online, but the guy had done the legwork, so I wasn't about to turn around and buy it online at that point.

Got home, spent the better part of a frustrating day setting it up. The inputs didn't work entirely right and required a workaround, the wireless speakers didn't seem to be working... by the time Suzanne left to go to her mama's group, I was good and frustrated. However, I did finally get everything working, even if you had to pull the S-video cable every time you wanted to watch a VHS tape. The wireless headphones were nice, and even worked in my office. Great. Sound wasn't perfect, but new cables would probably fix that. It was a headache, but probably worth it.

Hah. Foolish mortal.

One of the primary reasons we couldn't just use my PS/2 or another pre-existing DVD player in the house is because Katy has this InteractTV thing she loves to play with, and it has to be programmed kind of like a universal remote. This morning, Suzanne discovered that the codes weren't working with the new DVD player. I called up Panasonic, and they informed me that their DVDs didn't work with most universal remotes. They even tried to present it as a *feature*, "Why would you want to use another remote? You can only access all the features on our remote!"

So, disappointing sound, high price, doesn't work with the Tivo remote or Katy's remote... guess what, it's going back. That meant I had to spend most of this morning undoing all my hard work from Monday, worrying about what kind of restocking fee I'll have to pay and if my 4-year plan will be just money wasted, or if I can get that back as well. Lesson learned? If all you need is a DVD player, and you've been fine with just the TV sound for several months, don't go out and get a home stereo unless you're willing to pay somebody else to install it and really go all out on the high end stuff. So on Wednesday, I'll try to return all this stuff (saying goodbye to the wireless headphones will be the hardest part, as I couldn't get them to work with just the TV) and buy a simple, $50+ Phillips DVD player that I saw on Sunday and should have bought in the first place.

To be continued...

Why Paul O'Brien Remains My Favorite Reviewer:
"Oh god, another Wolverine miniseries. I wish I was dead."

Funny, sarcastic, insightful... and that's after years of a reviewing focus on the X-Books, which would brain damage a lesser man.

Entropy:
The last two days, it seems that everything is breaking on me. OK, not everything, maybe, but a couple major things just randomly broke, within hours of each other, and now it's got me paranoid.

The first thing that "broke" was the airline system. When I booked our Florida trip through Travelocity, they wouldn't let me go ticketless on Delta. I had to have paper tickets. I don't want them, I *like* electronic ticketing, but it's only $20 more, and the flights are priced right, so I figure what the hell. Big mistake.

When we're flying from Orlando to Miami, in the midst of the heightened security (this was the day after the new "no liquids" rule) and with a sleeping 3-year-old between us, Suzanne and I must have exchanged boarding passes about four times. We had to show them to the security agent at the line, the security agent at the scanner and somewhere else as well. At some point, during all this juggling, the paper ticket became detached from Katy's ticket. We didn't realize it, I'm not used to flying with them, so I didn't really even know they were there.

When we get up to get on the plane, they won't let us on. Other people are boarding around us, the flight takes off in like 10 minutes and they're telling us that we can't take the flight. Or at least, Katy can't, which pretty much means we can't either. I started getting desperate and even offered to re-buy the ticket. They checked in on that, found out that the price would be $520 (about $300 more than I paid for it originally, since now it's the "on the day" price). I said no, of course, trying to work something else out. Then I find out that if we don't get on the plane, we're still going to have to buy a ticket tomorrow for Katy, plus pay a change fee for mine and Suzanne's tickets, *plus* get a hotel in Orlando for the night... I bit the bullet and paid the $520, on top of the $1200 I'd already paid for the flight. Expensive lesson in not flying with paper tickets ever again.

Last night, I came home, hoping to finally watch The Matador (which I rented from Netflix about a month ago) on my 5-disc Sony DVD player, which I bought about a year ago. Except I couldn't remember which tray it was in, so I tried to open the player. It said "tray locked." Weird. It would still play the discs, but it wouldn't open. Thinking maybe somehow a child lock feature had been engaged, I went to the web, found the PDF manual and found that there was indeed a child lock. Tried to disengage, it wouldn't work. Suzanne and I tried several times in different button combinations, sure that it was child locked somehow but we couldn't get it open. Then I found another indicator on the manual and realized it hadn't been mistakenly child locked, but had just decided to stop working. The advice was "Take it in to a Sony repair center."

I guess a year later, it's not expected that it would still be working, as the thing is out of warranty, and they want to charge me almost as much as I paid for it (or would pay for a new one) to get it repaired. And I still need to make sure I get the discs out, because I may like the Matador, I may not, but I don't want to buy one only to return it to Netflix in replacement for the disc stuck in my player. Nor do I want to replace Dumbo, A Bug's Life or Disc Two of Newsradio Season Four, also stuck. So, resigning myself to having to buy a new DVD player, Suzanne and I crack this one open and get the discs out. Everything looks fine, the mechanisms seem to work, so I can't help but think it's a weird software glitch. But I have *no* idea how to fix a DVD player. The upside, at least, is that I've been meaning to pick up a new Home Theatre speaker set for the living room "someday" and all of them came with a DVD player, which I already have. Now I guess I don't, so that'll expand my shopping options a bit.

This morning, around 9:30, Suzanne and Katy got up to go see a kid's show at a local coffeehouse. I was sleeping in. About one minute after they left, I heard a loud pop from the direction of the bathroom. I walk out and see that for some reason, the pump in the back of the toilet in Katy's bathroom has popped up, and water is now spraying (thankfully into the tank, not onto the floor yet). I turned the water off at the wall and tried to see if I could fix it, but the pump is a lost cause. Randomly. Just decided to pop up and off, without anyone having used it in the last 10 minutes or touched it at all. Glad I was home, or that bathroom probably would have been flooded.

The upside here is that Suzanne is planning on redoing the bathrooms, with new toilets, sinks, etc. and even has an estimate. Of course, if we wait on the new toilet/bathroom, that means we're back to having a 1-bathroom house for a month (at least) and probably longer, so I doubt we'll be doing that.

So tomorrow I've got to shop around for a new DVD player and call a plumber, all the while keeping in mind that I burned about $500 more on the Florida trip than I meant to and hoping that nothing else breaks. Cross your fingers for me, and if anyone has any gremlin repellant, please send it my way.

Free Sample Comics!:
Thanks to Johanna Draper Carlson at Comics Worth Reading, I discovered that DC has made the
First Issues of Preacher, Fables, 100 Bullets, Y The Last Man and Sandman available to those of you who want to sample the books before diving into the trade.

This is terrific, and if you've never read Fables (my favorite monthly book), you must go and look HERE. It's free, all it costs is a few minutes of your time, and I'd be very surprised if you didn't find a new, much beloved comic out of the time invested.

Oh, and the Y PDF has the interesting text piece on the social effects of the plague that was sadly missing from the collected editions.

Greg McElhatton's New Site:
Greg McElhatton is one of my favorite reviewers, has been for a long time, and if you haven't already heard, he's moved to a brand new site. I missed announcing it the first day because I was out of town, but what better time than by linking to his review of Read About Comics ? Beyond! #1-2, which I agree whole-heartedly with?

Greg's move to a new site is not the only one you'll be hearing about on this blog, by the way. But more about that in the last week of August, when it's time for announcements.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 23, 2006:
Looks like a really good week. A few anticipated second issues (Jack of Fables, Elephantmen, Wonder Woman), several first issues of interest (Batman and Mad Monk, Eberron, Heroes for Hire) and a good crop of trades and ongoing series. I had ten potential "top five picks" and it was tough whittling them down.

TOP FIVE PICKS
Batman And The Mad Monk #1 (I've read this one already, and it's great, following up nicely off Batman and The Monster Men and featuring terrific art by Wagner, intriguing villains and a "Year One" vibe that I love. If you liked Long Halloween, you'll love Wagner's Batman stuff)
Eberron Eye Of The Wolf #1 (I love the Eberron setting, probably my favorite D&D campaign I've ever run, and I'm excited by the possibility of comics)
Elephantmen #2 (First issue was fantastic, with beautiful art. No reason to expect the second will be any less impressive)
Jack Of Fables #2 (Again, great first issue, and with that cliffhanger, I can't wait to see where it's headed next. Quite possibly as good as the book that it spun off from, which would make it one of the top five books in the industry right out of the gate)
Thing Idol Of Millions TP (Dan Slott's highly underrated old school fun series, collected in its entirety. Everybody buy this so maybe Marvel will greenlight a miniseries or direct-to-trade follow-up or something)

THE REST
Batman #656 (Grant Morrison's first issue left me more with a "what the hell was that?" feeling, but I'm still reading along to see if he'll hook me. He always has in the past)
Batman And The Monster Men TP (One of the best Batman stories of the past few years, with fantastic art by Matt Wagner)
Birds Of Prey #97 (The Birds face off with Black Alice again. I like the character, although not so much the Secret Society elements of the story)
Children Of Grave TP (Military ghost story moves to IDW for its collection, with a gorgeous Dan Brereton cover)
Daredevil #88 (Now that I have a better idea where Brubaker's going with Foggy, I'm able to enjoy the rest of the book a whole lot more, and it's one of my most-anticipated reads)
DMZ #10 (Concluding the excellent "Body of a Journalist" arc)
Eternals #3 (Neil Gaiman does traditional Kirby superheroes with his usual flair. Romita Jr. provides beautiful art... a great book. And no Civil War in sight)
Exiles #85 (An Exiles team made up entirely of Wolverines... potentially really funny gag story here)
Fear Agent #7 (I'd kind of like to see a story arc conclude here at some point, but it seems Remender is going more old school long-form in his plotting... still a blast of fun sci-fi action every time it comes out)
GI Joe Declassified #2 (Good to see Hama back on G.I. Joe for a tale of the early days)
Heroes For Hire #1 (Liked Daughters of the Dragon, curious to see what Gray/Palmiotti do here, although the Civil War tie-in and Tucci art weaken my interest)
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #9 (Sigh... only 6 more issues of Miyazawa art on this book. I'll enjoy it while I can, and hope for a great follow-up artist... I'd love to see Eric Kim from Oni on this book, if he could still do Love As A Foreign Language too)
Supermarket #4 (Wood and Donaldson's futuristic crime/action saga concludes)
Walking Dead #30 (I'm dying to see how this arc plays out)
Wonder Woman #2 (Read this one as well, and it's good, although I'm not sure it's so good as to outweigh the months-long wait for it)

T-Shirt Poll:
My friend Paul Benjamin is embarking on what looks like a cool-as-hell webcomic called Sci-Fu, and if you click on this link and vote for your favorite T-Shirt, you get a coupon for $5 off! More to the point, if you click on the link and vote for *my* favorite T-Shirt, I might get the design I like. If you're curious, the one I like is a copper T-Shirt with the silver (the very first) Intergalactic Bounty Hunter design. At any rate, go, vote and take a look... it all looks very cool.

Holy Shit! I Found It!:
I've long said that I began my comics reading with G.I. Joe and Uncanny X-Men, and that is true... those were the first comics I bought for myself, or had my parents buy at convenience stores, etc.

But the first book I remember reading, back in my hazy younger days, was some Superman/Hawkman team-up featuring Dr. Polaris. I had no idea what issue it was, or what comic, and I only remember that my parents bought it for me on a car trip. And then... I tuned into Will Pfeifer's guest entry on Comics Should Be Good and, if I'm reading this right, it was also the first comic that Pfeifer bought for himself. So here it is, the first comic I can ever remember reading:



I have almost no recollection of the interiors, and I don't doubt Pfeifer's estimation of it (lame), but... it was cool to see it again.

Civil War Delayed:
I usually don't do a lot of the "comics industry events" commentary because really, plenty of people are talking about these things already, and who cares what I have to add...

But I'm so pissed at this new Civil War delay announcement and the reaction it's getting that I feel I have to vent. You've been warned.

First of all, as a reader, I couldn't really give a shit. This type of event isn't really my thing, and despite liking some of the action sequences in issue two, mostly I've found this to be not for me. I was skimming through issue three, and I doubt very much I'll be doing much more than skimming issue four whenever the fuck it actually comes out. Most of the debate has focused on the reader angle, with the defenders (including the "professionals" at Marvel who should know better) arguing that it's a triumph for art, and hooray for Marvel for delaying all their books for a month and a half so that they don't have to get somebody else to do the art.

Which is bullshit, because Civil War is more commerce than art anyway, but again, that's neither here nor there. For the purposes of my post, the effect on the readers is of no consequence.

No, what's being ignored, not just by the readers (from whom I'd expect it... really, why should they care) but from the folks at Marvel (who should really be more aware of it) is the impact this is going to have on the retailers. You can be a jackass and say that retailers should have learned not to put their faith in Marvel and this is what they get for investing so heavily in the crossover, but that's the ignorance of someone who doesn't know how retail works speaking. Trust me, as a retailer who has little interest in most of the popular Marvel/DC books, the bulk of the sales in my shop still come from those books. I can get readers to try out new books, but mostly, the same 3-6 books sell every week to 90% of the customers, and I can pick them out by looking at the shipping list. 52, Civil War, whatever Marvel and DC are pushing or Wizard is behind, etc. I don't get to set the tastes of my customers, I get to react to it and try to push the other books I would really like to sell in hopes of getting some open-minded customers to try them out and spread the word.

So basically, Marvel has fucked over the retailers with this thing. Millar talks big in his statement that "Marvel believe in the project and they feel me and Steve have formed a good team. Something they don’t want to fuck with for the sake of squeezing a few more bucks into the next financial quarter and so, after doing their sums, decided they’ll take a hit."

How noble. How wonderful. How nice of them to decide that they'll take the hit. Except, of course, they won't.

Marvel is a gigantic company that can survive a cashflow deficiency for a month which will be made up when the book sells a month or two months late when it comes out because their books aren't returnable and the fanbase has become conditioned to late books.

No, the people taking the real hit are the retailers. The sudden disappearance of several of their biggest selling books for a month means less cash flow then planned in August, and probably less sales of other books in September when the money that would have been allocated to other new books in that month is instead allocated to late Civil War books. Because the buying pattern of the average comics consumer is not that they have X number of dollars to spend on comics each month, and if the comics they like don't come in, they spend those dollars on other comics. No, in fact the buying pattern is that they have X comics they are planning to buy, and if those comics don't come in, the cash more often than not goes right back in the wallet or out to music, movies, videogames or other forms of entertainment.

And comic shops are not gigantic corporations who can easily absorb a financial hit. I'm not saying this is going to drive shops under (although it could well kill new ones that were promising, or older ones that are struggling to regain their footing), but it is a worrying sign, and it is certainly going to hurt all but the biggest of chain stores.

What's really telling about all this is Marvel's reaction to it. They put out the press release not when they knew the delay was coming (c'mon, they know how much art and story they've got in-house) but at the absolute last minute before the book was supposed to ship. Then, when they do send out the press release to inform the retailers, is there any kind of apology? Any kind of "Look, we know this is fucked up, here's how we're going to help you?"

No. Instead, there's "We're going to add more crossovers to give you more blind guessing to do with who's going to buy what crossovers and how many you should order!" There's "We're doing it because we want the book to be great, and you should really thank us for this!" There's "Art takes time!"

Which is an interesting contrast with Tom Breevort's public shaming of Dan Slott a few months back for being a week or two late on his assignments. Apparently if it's someone whose books are not tightly tied in to every schedule and frankly don't really matter if they miss a ship date by a week or two, it's an unprofessional catastrophe, but if it's the flagship book whose month of lateness takes down a huge chunk of the publishing schedule it's something we should thank them for doing.

Basically, editorial fucked up. They're either completely incompetent or cynically calculating, both of which should leave a bad taste in the fans' mouths. Either they had no idea that the artist who could complete a book in six weeks was going to run late on a monthly schedule, in which case they're idiots, or they knew this book was going to be late and they figured they could get away with it.

Let's face it, it's probably the latter. And truthfully, they're right. Marvel isn't going to hurt, and if a few of the retailers go out of business, it really doesn't affect them in the short-term. But the honorable thing to do would have been to be upfront with your retail partners, offer a realistic shipping schedule off the bat and let everyone plan for this new type of schedule, rather than lying in order to hype the book so that the fans were already invested and the retailers were already invested and were left with no recourse in planning their own cash-flow.

I don't have a good summation for you here. Essentially, as always, Marvel wins and gets to do whatever it wants, professionalism be damned, and the fans at large thank them for it. But I felt I at least needed to vent, and I do feel somewhat better as a result.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 16, 2006:
Since the First Look books are now more or less a thing of the past (sadly), I'm going to change up this weekly list from Already Read and Haven't Read Yet to "Top Five Picks" and "The Rest." Keep in mind that in almost all cases, this is based on speculation, not having read the actual books, and so my actual opinions could vary when all is said and done.

This was a tough week in which to start the new format, incidentally... because there are at least four more books that could have gone in the top five. If that continues, I might switch to a "Top Ten Picks." Or maybe "Top Eight" just to be different.

TOP FIVE PICKS:
Marvel Adventures Avengers #4 (The Masters of Evil vs. The Avengers, in Marvel Adventures style... can't wait)
Phonogram #1 (Got a look at this in San Diego, and it looks great... like High Fidelity meets Hellblazer, maybe?)
Psycho TP (Dan Brereton work is always to be treasured... work that I've never read before is an even rarer treat)
Runaways #19 (After the developments in last issue, I can't wait to see what happens next)
Wasteland #2 (Great opener to what I think could be an indy phenom ala Walking Dead)

THE REST:
Adventures In Oz TP (Now that I've seen the hardcover, I really wish I'd ordered that... but the softcover looks great as well)
Amazing Joy Buzzards Vol 2 #5 (Finally, more AJB! This is one of my favorite books)
Bone Vol 4 Dragonslayer Color Edition SC (Late in getting this one, for some reason... but I've been really enjoying these newly colored volumes)
Boys #1 (I'm skeptical about a mature readers superhero book, which seems like a waste of these guys' talent... but c'mon, it's Ennis and Robertson, I have to give it a look)
Casanova #3 (Bizarre, action-packed, funny and beautiful to look at... another favorite)
Conan #31 (Mike Mignola's story arc concludes, and it's been a fun read so far)
Dummys Guide To Danger #1 (Hardboiled detective fiction in which the protagonist has a ventriloquist's dummy... weird, but the early reviews are good)
Family Guy Vol 2 (First one was surprisingly funny and kept nicely with the tone of the show)
Fell #6 (Another Ellis book that has fallen into the "you'll get it when you get it" schedule, but usually good when it shows up... maybe not worth the extra wait, but usually good)
Grounded TP (Liked Paul Azaceta's artwork on this book quite a bit... the story of superhero schools is unfortunately making the rounds in comics and films these days, and so it lost me midway through)
Manhunter #25 (This was to be the last issue, but instead it's the last issue before a new story arc... nice. Hope the sales boost to keep it around)
Monkey Vs Lemur Crisis With Infinite Critters #1 (One of my friends has a story in this one, and even better, it's Monkey Vs. Lemur... the first one, now super hard to find, was very funny and had great art)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 4 (The suspense manga really got going in the last volume, I'm dying to see what happens next)
Savage Brothers #1 (Post-apocalyptic comedy and violence from Boom!)
Shadowpact #4 (Still not entirely sure I'm following this book or not, but it's got a quirky charm to it)
True Story Swear To God #17 (I believe this is the last pre-Image issue)

On Mel Gibson:
From the BBC: Swayze defends 'good guy' Gibson

Jesus. I know Hollywood likes to take care of its own and all, but c'mon. Even forgiving Gibson's increasingly frequent visits to crazytown entirely, isn't everyone just conveniently ignoring that he was driving drunk?

All Mel's celebrity and fan defenders are going out of their way to say "He was drunk, so his anti-semitism and misogyny are forgivable." And even if you're willing to accept that (and I'm not), shouldn't the next question be, "Yeah, but if he's drunk enough to not be aware of what he's saying, doesn't it make it that much more reprehensible that he was driving a fucking car?"

Or is it OK as long as he doesn't have bad luck and kill somebody?

Fuck Mel Gibson. Whether he's an anti-semite or not, it's pretty clear the guy's a grade-A jackass.

A Good Time To Read Webcomics:
Webcomics have always been bigger than I've really been aware, but it seems of late that more and more are crossing my radar, and more and more of them are just... well, just fucking great, actually.

Everybody probably already knows about PVP, Diesel Sweeties, Penny Arcade and Perry Bible Fellowship... and when Activate went live, I really started digging that one, especially the work of Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld and Chip Zdarsky.

This week, thanks to Johanna Draper Carlson, I discovered Theater Hoppers. And today marks the launch of The Chemistry Set, which may be the best webcomics collective yet.

The list of talent includes a number of indy creators whose work I love. Check out this lineup:
*1 Way Ticket by Chris Arrant (Project: Rooftop) and Daniel Warner (SLG's Cocopiazo)
*Stuck by Vito Delsante and Tom Williams (No Dead Time, Looking At The Front Door)
*Vulture Gulch by Jim Dougan (Crazy Papers) and Eric Kim (Love As A Foreign Language)
*Scheherazade, with writing by relative newcomer Elizabeth Genco and terrific art from Australian artist Adam Boorman
*Todt Hill by Xeric-winner Neil Kleid and artist Kevin Colden (whose work reminds me of Street Angel's Jim Rugg)

It's a terrific line-up, and the first installments of all the strips look very promising. *And* they've got RSS feeds, which makes it a whole lot easier to keep up with. Great site, definitely go check it (and the other webcomics I listed) out.

New Webcomic:
While in San Diego, I happened upon the booth of Takeshi Miyazawa, one of my favorite artists who works on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane currently. I also learned that Miyazawa, along with Arthur Dela Cruz (of Oni's Kissing Chaos) are working on webcomics at BFX Project.

Looks really good, go and check it out. I just wish it had an RSS feed, as I'm notoriously forgetful in checking out webcomics.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 9, 2006:
ALREADY READ:
Fables #52 (The Adversary reacts to Bigby's attack in #50... great as always... plus the start of four-page backup tales introducing new Fables!)
Marvel Zombies HC (One of the guilty pleasure books of the year... not quite on my buying list, but it's close)

HAVEN'T READ:
Annihilation #1 (Very mixed feelings on the Annihilation lead-ins, but there were definitely some high points... curious to see how the actual mini is)
Beyond #2 (Really dug the first issue of this "Secret Wars II with B- and C-listers" book)
Conan & The Songs Of The Dead #2 (Also had a great first issue, standard Lansdale/Truman excellence)
Escapists #2 (This is a week for follow-ups to great second issues... Escapists #1 is one of the best issues I've read all year)
Goosebumps Graphix Vol 1 Creepy Creatures TP (Saw a preview of this in San Diego... beautiful artwork by Scott Morse, Greg Ruth, etc.)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 5 TP (Wow, I had thought we were in a permanent holding pattern on new Grimjack trades... guess we've got one more before that happens)
Recess Pieces HC (I'm a latecomer to Bob Fingerman's work, but I've found his weird sense of humor and stylized artwork to my taste. Grade school zombie horror/humor seems right up his alley)
Scarlet Traces The Great Game #2 (Beautiful artwork by D'Israeli, interesting sci-fi/political commentary tale)
Secret Six #3 (I've been a little lukewarm on Simone's follow-up to Villains United, but I still really like these characters, so I'll stick it out a while longer)
She-Hulk #10 (If you're willing to forgive the Starfox missteps, this is still a highly entertaining book)

I Have a Nephew:
My sister gave birth to her first child, Andrew Nicholas Pedersen (named after my grandfather Andrew, who passed earlier this year), at about 8 PM Florida time tonight.

Suzanne and I are heading down to Florida to see him and the proud parents and grandparents next week.

Blog Template Update for July
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.

July was a resurgence for my comics interest. The first week of July was easily the best week of comics in all of 2006, with the debut of Beyond, Occult Crimes Taskforce, Ed Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men, Lansdale/Truman Conan, the second volume of Death Jr. and two quarter books (a gorgeous pin-up celebration from Dark Horse and an intriguing lead-in to the next Hack/Slash), not to mention new volumes of BPRD, Fables, Essential Marvel Universe and Flight. The rest of the month was pretty solid as well, and I had a hard time, for the first time in several months, cutting down my favorites to 20 and 10. Seriously, both were pretty much filled by the second week of July.

This was of course good timing, as it sent me off to Comicon with love in my heart for the medium and less venom in my heart for the industry, just in time. It was not as good of a month for TV, as I filled most of my viewing time with poker games on various channels, and I had to cheat and include one-off Amazing Screw-On Head and Psych (which I've only seen one episode of thus far) to make it to 10. I would almost include Heroes, which I saw at Comicon, but I felt like that was really cheating, since it won't even air on iTunes until September 1st. But definitely check out this show, folks... the haters are already out in force at TV Squad and even Entertainment Weekly, forecasting doom for the show before they've even seen it, and I thought it was a strong pilot with potential to be a great series. Don't let somebody else make your mind up for you... and that includes me, if you hate it, that's cool, but give it a look before you decide.

Plenty of notable first issues this month: Beyond, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways, Conan & The Songs of the Dead, Death Jr. Vol 2, Elephantmen, Escapists, Jack of Fables, Occult Crimes Taskforce and Wasteland.

I'm Going to Disneyworld!:
It's been an unusual year. I've quit reviewing comics, something I've been doing for about 10 years, I've sold my house and bought a new one, my last grandparent died and I attended his funeral, the business I've worked at for about six years is about to have its 20th anniversary, my sister is about to have her first baby, my little girl is about to enter preschool... and that's just all I can think of right now.

So it's been a busy year, and mostly, in a good way. Lots of things going on, one of those years where you look around and go "Holy shit! I'm a grown-up!" So what do you do when you're a grown-up?

You go to the San Diego Comicon and Disney World. Arrested development ain't just the name of my favorite sitcom, folks. Hell, if we could throw in a guys' trip to Vegas (and we might, before the year is out) in there, we'd have the trifecta.

But the truth is, Disney World isn't a calculated attempt to hold onto my youth or anything like that. Oh, I'm sure I'll enjoy it like a sugar-fueled 8-year-old - we're staying at one of the Disney motels and I can't wait to check out the newly updated Pirates ride, now that the buzz is "doesn't suck" - but I'm not the number one reason we're going.

Katy is. See, she loves Disney. Loves it. Watches all the movies (Pixar too), has several "princess dresses" and knows all the characters from Lion King all the way back to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And since we were going to Miami to see my sister's baby (which should be born about 48 hours after this is posted, and I'll finally know if I have a niece or nephew), and the connecting flights from Austin stopped in Orlando, well... I had to look. Had to check prices and times and convenience.

Turns out, it's not a lot more expensive to stop in Orlando, flight-wise. And once I knew that, it was a done deal. We were going to stay at a Howard Johnson or something, drive in to Disney and I decided that was kinda stupid. I mean, the hotel would be cheaper, but the cost of travel and the hassle therein would make up for it. So we looked at the Disney hotels, and chose one of the cheaper ones (the movie focused one), which still has all the swanky extras. Things like taking your luggage from the plane and into your hotel room without you having to go to the baggage carousel. Taking *you* from the plane to your hotel room, and shuttling you to whatever part of Disney you want. Some meals included for a fee that is probably cheaper than just paying for the meals in the park (although we'll be doing that too.) So we're doing the whole Disney thing. Staying at a Disney hotel, going to Magic Kingdom one day and one of the other parks (probably Animal Kingdom) on another before heading to Miami to see the baby.

It's also Katy's first flight, and she's excited about that too. She's going to sit at the window and watch the clouds, or at least so she says. My biggest fear is that she'll be terrified, and we'll have to deal with that, but that doesn't seem terribly in character for my little girl. I haven't really seen her scared of much. She claims to be scared of monsters at night sometimes, but I think that's mostly a ploy to get out of sleeping.

I can't wait. Can't wait for Katy to get on the plane, to stay at the pool, to play on the beach, to meet her new cousin, to see all her favorite characters at the park and ride the rides...

OK, I guess in some ways Disney is for me too. But it's for me because I'm going to have so much fun watching Katy enjoy it.

By the way, I learned in San Diego that a lot of comics people are reading this blog for its comics content. I hereby apologize for posts like this one, and hope you don't find them too boring. :)