Comic Book Magazines:
Coming off a weak Chicago Con scheduled too close to San Diego and of course the Atlanta/Heroes Con fiasco, I'm sensing the backlash against the premier offline comics magazine Wizard. You can get a sense of it in Heidi's report and Augie's report, to name two sources.

Which got me thinking, maybe it's time for someone to launch a new comics magazine. Wizard has been under assault for years now because they basically represent the industry to a lot of folks (the monthly sales at one time were higher than any monthly comic, and anecdotal evidence from my experience in retail shows that a lot of readers are still taking their cues from Wizard and little else), and the face they put on the industry is one that is maybe a little childish, certainly driven more by hype and "hotness" than quality and artistic achievement.

That's to be expected, really. Why have so many comics magazines (Hero, Combo, etc.) fallen by the wayside when Wizard survived and thrived? It's because Wizard has something that Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman and the rest have... they're established. Familiar. Comfortable. They got established by riding one of the last waves of new stuff that broke through to the general public, the emergence of Valiant and Image publishers.

In other words, they rode to prominence during the speculator age. Speculation and hype and style over substance is coded into Wiard's DNA. Sadly, it also seems to be present in the DNA of a lot of comics readers these days, and so there's a vicious cycle of Wizard hyping the stuff that's already popular, people buying the stuff that is popular, and Wizard reports on what people are buying. You can't really fault Wizard for being what they are, just as you can't fault a lot of folks for being frustrated that the primary face of our industry represents some of the worst aspects of it.

But could a new magazine knock Wizard off the perch? Offer up a slightly more adult viewpoint, without becoming too dry, too old school or too snobby? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say: Nope. The place once held by print has been subsumed to a great deal by online media, and it would be damn near impossible (if not actually impossible) for a print source to compete with what's being done by literally hundreds of people whose turnaround time from source to print is minutes or hours and whose geographical spread means that it's essentially a 24 hour news cycle. It might be different if these folks were all amateurs, but most of them (or, more immodestly, us) have been at this for years, and many come from a background with ties to the published world of comics.

Better yet, the Internet comics journalism world is free. So a new magazine would have to be so good as to overwhelm not only the longstanding stranglehold Wizard has on that segment of the market, but to make consumers think "even though I can get the same news, interviews and reviews online, this has *something* worth paying for in it." It's not an impossible task, but it's definitely an uphill one.

Sorry if that was all a bit scattered. Just some thoughts I was having. And I didn't even touch on Comic Buyer's Guide, The Comics Journal or any of the other magazines that are also covering the industry these days, or my thoughts on the downsides of the free Internet economy for those who are actually providing the news, interviews and reviews.

My Weekend:
This was a relatively busy weekend for me. My wife and I drove down (along with my buddy Nate) to Beerland at around 9:30, 10:00 on Saturday to go and see The Blue Flames open for The Flametrick Subs. The Flames were good, but the Flametrick Subs (and Satan's Cheerleaders) were, as always, great. It was a late night, and by the time Suzanne and I got home, it was about 2:15 and we were exhausted, but it was a lot of fun.

Sunday I slept in, but then went out with my friend Chris to meet Andrew Boyd and his girlfriend Robyn (whose name I hope I didn't misspell) for the Texas Rollergirls Roller Derby championship. I'd never been out to Roller Derby, but I'll definitely go again, as it was a lot of fun. I regretted sitting on the floor for the first half, as my legs were killing me, but Chris and I stood for the second half and had a good time. I think by the end we'd almost figured out how the game was played!

Today, I slept in (again... my weekend routine is to catch up on sleep) and then mostly bummed around. Put more antifreeze in the car (I think it needs a tune-up, but I'm holding out because there's only about 500 miles until the next oil change, which is close enough to just go ahead and to the 90,000 mile service), played with Katy, cooked up some teriyaki chicken on the grill (good) with a cheesy potatoes and broccoli packaged thing I got at HEB (not so good) and then installed Thunderbird to replace Outlook Express. After a few false starts with password stuff, I'm enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the changeover from Internet Explorer to Firefox... love the RSS reader capabilities. I thought I was enjoying RSS links in Firefox, but having the content "pushed" to my email reader is even better.

And now... I go to forage for snacks, play some more Burnout 3 on the PS/2, watch more of The Job: The Complete Series (currently rented from Netflix) and maybe even get something productive done like taking some pictures for my upcoming next round of eBay auctions.

(Hey, don't look at me... I said right upfront that daily updates meant they'd often be more boring than usual. ;)

Wizard World Chicago - That's it?:
While I was in San Diego, like most folks, I missed what was actually announced at San Diego. Came home to a veritable deluge of news from the major and minor publishers, which took me a few days to really catch up on. Since I wasn't going to Chicago, I figured I'd be able to read the news as it came in and keep up better. And I was able to do that... but that had a lot to do with the trickle of actual news.

Now granted, some of the big announcements mean little or nothing to me. I'm no fan of Michael Turner's work, so I couldn't care less about whether he's doing all his company-owned stuff at Marvel or DC, and I'm no big fan of Joe Mad's stuff either, although I do think the drubbing he's likely to take from Battle Chasers fans about finishing the work he started is well-deserved. Jeph Loeb at Marvel is mildly interesting, as I always like his stuff with Sale a little bit better at Marvel, but given that I'm off most of the big books at Marvel and DC, it hardly matters to me who is writing them, because I'm not likely to be reading or enjoying them. And Brubaker/Lark on Daredevil is the worst kept secret in comics, so that hardly counts as a major announcement... more like an expected and overdue confirmation.

No, mostly it seemed to be the companies patting themselves on the back over how great their comics are. Ultimate Universe - The Gold Standard. Odd, then, that the sales and buzz on those titles is slipping, isn't it? Crisis Counseling. Yes, we get it, Infinite Crisis is going to infect (excuse me, affect) every single book in the DC Universe. Things aren't going to be cheery and light in the wake of House of M? Well, gee, given how the new "grim 'n gritty" is selling, that's a shocker. Wizard's reputation for hyping stuff that's already popular ought to get a boost out of this Con, since that's pretty much what seemed to be going on.

You'll all have to pardon me for being a killjoy... but my vague feelings that the worst of the '90s has made a return in a newer, tougher-to-kill form were just strengthened by all the hype (excuse me, news) coming out of Chicago.

So this is what Saturday morning looks like:
I must say, I don't care for it. Sure, it's pretty, sun is shining, birds are singing, but it's just so damn early! As a result of one person being on vacation this week and my desire to get off early to go to the Flametrick Subs show tonight, I volunteered to switch shifts with the other manager and get up at 8:00 on Saturday to work the 9-5 shift. Fortunately, gaming didn't go as long as it usually does (usually around 2 or 3, last night it was more like 10:30), although I stupidly went home and watched TV until around 1:30 anyway. I'm a night person, and just have trouble sleeping until it's gotten past midnight by an hour or two.

Fortunately, there is caffeine. And caffeine is good.

Weekly Comics to Come:
For the week of August 10, 2005

ALREADY READ:
Action Comics #830 (Still the best Superman title, but the Infinite Crisis tie-ins are weakening my interest, and villain of choice in this issue gets on my nerves fast)
Adam Strange Planet Heist Tp (Fantastic action adventure with gorgeous artwork. Given that I'm enjoying Rann-Thanagar War, the follow-up, for the most part, I'll almost certainly pick this up)
Box Office Poison Complete New Edition Tp (Good to see this back in print. Review HERE)
Captain America #8 (Not crazy about the whole Winter Soldier plot, but Brubaker does a good job of selling the explanation in this issue and has some nice action as depicted by Epting)
Fables #40 (The Adversary revealed! Maybe? It's a fun issue with some great revelations, and Little Boy Blue continues to be an unexpectedly great badass action hero)
Gravity #3 (Continues to be one of Marvel's best books, with an old school Spider-Man vibe and a story you couldn't really do with Spider-Man)
Incredible Hulk #85 (Tied with House of M: Fantastic Four for the best thing to come out of the House of M. Peter David is making great use of the new Scorpion and her backstory for this story, and it's sort of off to the side of the House of M story, so you can enjoy it as just an alternate history tale)
Mage Vol 2 The Hero Defined Hc (First hardcover was terrific, second story is even better, been waiting for this. Hope there are no (or at least fewer) typos in this deluxe hardcover, though)
New Warriors #3 (So much fun. The secret origin of Microbe, the team deals with a flat tire and we see their producer's pitch meeting with the network for the Warriors reality show, which is hysterical. Also, the best art of Skottie Young's career so far)
Runaways Vol 1 Hc (The whole first volume in one giant hardcover. If not for the Top Shelf releases, would probably be my favorite read of the week)
Spiral Bound Gn (Review coming soon, but this all-ages treat about secret newspapers, a monster in the park, sculpting classes and a variety of other things is a great read)
The King Gn (Really terrific story based on the myth of the living Elvis. Review HERE)
Tricked Gn (Alex Robinson's new graphic novel, an ensemble piece about fame, secrets from the past and romance, among other things. Review HERE)

HAVEN'T READ:
100 Bullets #63 (With the war between the Trust and the Minutemen heating up, this book remains one of my must-read titles)
Cast #1-2 (This one was apparently big in the Phillipines, it's about a boy who decides to try out for drama at an all-girl school and features some really nice art)
Concrete Vol 1 Depths Tp (Looking forward to seeing Dark Horse's repackaging of Concrete... especially since I haven't read a lot of the Concrete stories yet)
Ferro City #1 (Very nice looking art on this "robot noir," hoping the story is as good)
Hero At Large #1 (Superhero comedy from Speakeasy)
Mort Grim (Buzz book from San Diego, I have a copy but haven't read it yet)
Rann Thanagar War #4 (A bit sprawling, but kind of fun space opera/action stuff so far)
Seven Soldiers Zatanna #3 (Hooray! More Seven Soldiers! This one has a snarky and fun sense of humor and gorgeous artwork by Ryan Sook)
True Story Swear To God #14 (Always good to see another issue of Tom Beland's autobiographical/romance/humor book)
Villains United #4 (The Suicide Squad vibe and general skill of Gail Simone keeps me hooked into this one despite its deep Infinite Crisis ties, although I do hope that the original artist (Eaglesham) returns for issue four)

This Just In:
Matt Haley is awesome. Check out these commissions on his site, and keep an eye out for his work on G.I. Spy #1, as well as some sweet-looking covers for Firestorm and Hawkman.

Just happened to be surfing the web and pointed out to his site and figured I'd give other folks a pointer to these cool commission sketches. It's amazing how many cool original pieces of art are out there on these artist's pages... Scott Morse and The Wildstorm guys are two more examples.

More Comics Stuff:
You'll note on the left column of the blog that I've added a couple more comics-related touches. I've got a Current Favorite Monthly Titles, which is my counterpart to Current Favorite TV series, as well as my five favorite first issues of the month and my ten favorite graphic novel reads of the month.

A couple things of note in how I organize these things, for those who care. These listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. I've narrowed it down to five or ten, beyond that is further narrowing of which one I liked best than I want to do on a monthly basis, at least right now. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. And thirdly, I was pretty strict on the monthly series, in that it has to be a series that is solicited and actually printed monthly, and it has to be either ongoing or a long ongoing (at least 30 issues) instead of a limited series. This is why, for example, The Atheist (bimonthly), True Story Swear to God (bimonthly) and Livewires (limited series) didn't make the list. In each case, I've provided a link for the listing, usually to one of my reviews (for further info on my opinion), but in the case of the monthly books and books I haven't reviewed, I've provided links to official publisher or creator sites or the best source of info I could find relatively easily.

Finally, the updates are for the month of July... August just barely started. So all my favorites will be anywhere from a week to a full month old, but these are meant to be sort of "standing" preferences anyway.

I may, if I feel ambitious enough, start doing a Favorite Miniseries of the month and Favorite Indie Books listing at some point... but not yet. My plan is to update these lists every month, although I reserve the right to do it more frequently or less frequently as the mood strikes me.

Spycraft 2.0:
It's been a little while since I've done a gaming-related post. Yesterday marked the release of Spycraft 2.0 (or at least, my first chance to buy it). I loved the original d20 Spycraft, in large part for the Chase rules that were so innovative in building an exciting mechanic into a relatively non-combat part of the game. I felt it could use some tweaking, and the additional rules being bolted on from the supplements were getting to be too much.

Enter Spycraft 2.0. It's still not perfect (there's a ton of rules here, and I can't help but feel that paring those down would have made it more approachable, and I still hate that a grenade can potentially do basically nothing to someone standing next to it), but it's got a lot of improvements and all that I loved about the original system.

Notable improvements: A speeding-up of the "gearing up" process (which bogged down every Spycraft game I played), introduction of "interrogation, infiltration" and a few other mechanics along the chase lines, a revision of the skills system and an expansion of the core classes without losing all the really good ones.

I'm excited about playing Spycraft again, although I'm curious how my players are going to react when they have to rebuild their characters from the ground up using their original concepts and the 2.0 rules.

The Basement Tapes:
If you're not reading Comic Book Resources's The Basement Tapes, a weekly back and forth about various industry topics by Matt Fraction and Joe Casey, you should be. While I don't always agree with them, and in fact sometimes vehemently disagree, this is smart, funny and eloquent discourse on the industry.

Today's topics: Retailers and publishers, and the relationships between them. This gets discussed a lot, usually by folks who don't know their ass from their head, let alone the vagaries of publishing and retailing. Again, there are some things in this column that I think are 100% wrong, but there's a lot of interesting discussion there.

I know Fraction has done his time in retail, and you can tell in the way he talks about the realities of the situation. I'm not sure about Casey, but I'd guess he hasn't, because he does have some ideas about the direct market that haven't been borne out by my five or six years working in that side of the market. For example, the notion that DC or Marvel should send out full copies of their most spoilerific hypefests to every retailer, trusting the retailer not to spoil it for customers, is a remarkably bad idea. For every one or two retailers who would properly use that information to order more efficiently, there are a dozen who would mark it up and sell it to their customers, and the stuff would wind up on Ebay about five minutes after the previews hit the retail level.

Fraction, I think, has some sympathy for the burden on a retailer's time, but he missed a point, I think, in talking about web resources for smaller publishers. These web resources are a fantastic idea, and any retailer worth his salt spends some time on the Internet checking up on the latest in comics news and indie publisher previews, but... there are way too many independent publishers for any retailer to keep up with all of them. No mystery about one reason or another, it's just a matter of time as the resources pile up.

Note that this isn't my column on retailing. These are a couple of the points that came up in my head from reading The Basement Tapes, and this happens every single time I read the column. It always gets me thinking, analyzing, wondering about the industry and the mechanisms that make it work.

A New Job:
No, I don't have one. Truthfully, I suck at looking, I hate looking and I haven't been doing the reading of classified, the constant updating of resumes and the networking required to get one. I enjoy my current job enough that I'm not desperate to get out (as I was when I was working at Austin Community College as a marketing assistant), but I'm also realistic that I don't really want to be managing a comics shop for nine bucks an hour when I'm forty, if I can avoid it. The realization that I probably won't be getting another raise, ever, no matter how well I do my job, hits me every now and then and makes me realize that it's foolish to stay in this job.

Problem, of course, being that I have no idea what else I want to do. I have no real desire to go back to school and learn a new trade, if only because there aren't any trades I'm dying to learn. I have a lot of expertise in customer service, a pretty vast knowledge of comics and other pop culture and a mind with a bent for organizing, but when I combine these traits, what I get is the equation that I'm perfectly suited for... managing a comic book store. And I'm not quite rich or gutsy enough to try opening a new comics shop in a hotly contested area like Austin, and I don't want to move away in the name of opening a new shop in an area I don't know. Truthfully, I don't want to move away at all, but I probably would if I could find a job with some growth potential in an area I liked (such as California or the Pacific Northwest or even New York, now that I've gotten more used to the idea of the city).

So yeah, this is mostly me bitching about job stuff. But y'know, if anybody has any suggestions (or even better, good job opportunities), drop me a line.

New Mini-Comics Review Blog:
Found this link off of The Beat, as Size Matters, a new blog by Shawn Hoke, has been set up to review mini-comics. I'm a big fan of the format, and glad to see these comics (which sometimes are more creatively satisfying than the work that's being professionally produced, and often are a "first look" at creators who will become big talents in the medium) getting a spotlight on a regular basis.

Million Dollar Baby:
I rented this from Netflix just before I left for San Diego, and finally got around to watching it on Friday night. I was completely impressed, even with all the hype and awards that surrounded the flick. Amazing performances from Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, fantastic writing and great dialogue from Paul Haggis and beautiful shot composure by Eastwood and his crew. Yes, it's got a downbeat ending, but it's not as depressing as I was expecting, and I found a lot of the early part of the movie quite funny and quite moving as well. The boxing matches in particular are shot really well.

Comic Collecting Software:
I've just never been organized enough to put my comics into a database. Well, organized isn't probably the right word. Maybe I've been too lazy to sit down for what's likely to be a weekend or two to input all my comics in so that I've got a good record of them. I had a couple failed attempts with MS Excel about 7-8 years ago, and before that with some rinky-dink Mac program I don't even remember, but both times I gave up about one or two longboxes in.

However, it's a good idea, and for those less lazy than I, I provide this link to Comic Keeper, a new comics database software that retails for $25-30, rather than the $250-300 that the granddaddy of them all, Comic Base, goes for. If you've always wanted to computerize your collection info but didn't want to drop hundreds, this is definitely worth a look.

Weekly Comics to Come:
For the week of August 3, 2005

ALREADY READ:
Fantastic Four Unstable Molecules Tp (It lacks a punchy ending or a really strong structure, but it's got some great moments and terrific Guy Davis artwork, so I'm glad to see Marvel reprinting it. Now how about a trade of Thing - Night Falls on Yancy Street, which was one of the best Fantastic Four stories Marvel has published in years?)
Gotham Central #34 (The Teen Titans come in to talk about the supposed death of Robin, and the politics of cops and Batman are explored when one of the cops takes a shot at him - Another great issue)
Hero Squared #1 (Not just an also-ran companion to Formerly Known as the Justice League and Defenders, this is Giffen/DeMatteis on an original concept, and with this first issue of the miniseries, I've warmed up considerably - review coming soon)
Hip Flask Mystery City (It's not entirely coherent this time out, but it's beautiful, as all the Ladronn-illustrated Hip Flask stories have been - an annual treat)
Pvp #0 (Mostly a "clip show" for new readers, but also has a really sweet "secret origin of Skull" new feature, and it's 50 cents!)
Sandman Presents Thessaly Witch For Hire Tp (Bill Willingham's Thessaly miniseries isn't as great as his Fables work, but it's still pretty entertaining)
Season Of The Witch #0 (The first issue of a new fantasy series, with some solid action, a likable heroine and great artwork)
Stupid Comics #3 (More Mahfood-y goodness!)
Y The Last Man #36 (A focus on Beth, Yorick's long-lost girlfriend, and what's she up to, as good as the book always is)

HAVEN'T READ:
Antique Bakery Gn Vol 1 (Lene Taylor and Ginger Mayerson covered this on their podcast, and while it definitely doesn't sound up my alley, the insanity of the premise, the execution and the (I kid you not) scratch and sniff cover is too strangely compelling not to mention)
Fantastic Four House Of M #2 (Probably the best thing to come out of House of M so far, as John Layman explores what happens to the other master supervillains when one of them takes over)
Grimjack Killer Instinct #6 (The return of Grimjack concludes - hope we'll see more Grimjack soon)
Jsa #76 (I think the Day of Vengeance tie-ins and various other Infinite Crisis flavorings may have killed my interest in this book, as they have so many others in the DCU)
Justice #1 (Krueger, Ross and Braithwaite turn their attention to a grimmer, grittier Superfriends. Could wind up being great old school kind of fun, but these are the guys who bored me to tears on Universe X, so we'll see)
Karma Incorporated #1 (Folks in the business of revenge for money from Viper Comics - I'm expecting dark comedy)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 3 Tp (Yay, more classic Grimjack reprinted from IDW!)
Lions Tigers & Bears Tp (The first issue of this was all-ages fun, and then I lost track of it, so I need to check this trade out)
Marvel 1602 New World #1 (Not real optimistic about a continuation of Gaiman's 1602, which I wasn't crazy about in the first place, but Pak and Tocchini both have talent, so I'll at least give it a look)
Marvel Visionaries John Romita Sr Hc (Love these Visionaries hardcover, love Romita Sr.'s work)
Mnemovore #4 (The story lost me a little bit on the last issue, but the art continues to impress and I'm hoping that the story will rope me back in as well)
Serenity #2 (Enjoyed the first issue quite a bit, looking forward to the second one)
Ted Noodleman Bicycle Delivery Boy Tp (Early work by Ryan Ottley, the glimpse I had in San Diego looked pretty solid)
Top Ten The Forty Niners Hc (Alan Moore and Gene Ha present the last Top 10 story, or at least the last one with Moore's name attached, and thus the last one for me)
Wildsiderz #1 (J. Scott Campbell returns with a concept that sounds Saturday morning cartoon inspired, and which could be fun - although the preview book was not terribly promising)

More Stuff to Review:
I've already covered the stuff that needs reviewing from San Diego, here's what makes up the majority of my comp pile at the moment: Dark Horse Book of the Dead, Conan #15-17, Chronicles of Conan Vols. 5-7, Conan Vol. 1 (yep, there's a Conan feature in the offing), 2 Sisters, Ojo TPB, The Wandering Schoolgirl, Nothing Left to Lose, Punish the Dead, The Ride, Iron Ghost #2, Firestorm #14-15, Zombie King #0, Qwerty, Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities #2-3, Children of the Grave #1-3, Johnny Raygun #1-4, Tabloia #575-576, The Norm Magazine #6-7, Ghostbusters #1-4, Night #1-2, Symbiotes #2-4, Helios #2-3, Club 9 Vol. 3, Small Gods Special #1, PVP #0, Season of the Witch #0, Guncandy #1, Body Bags #1, Bonerest #1, Grounded #1, Battle Pope #1, Wildguard: Fool's Gold #1-2, The Gatesville Company #1, The Atheist #2, Invincible #24, Armor X #4, The Walking Dead #20, Hero Camp #3, Girls #3, Stupid Comics #3, Star Wars Empire #32, Man With the Screaming Brain #3, Usagi Yojimbo #85, Strange Girl #2 and Mickey Mouse Meets Blotman.

That's not all that's getting reviewed... two things not on the comp pile that are in the soon to be reviewed pile are Teenagers From Mars TPB (finally bought this and really liked it) and Godland #1 (haven't read yet, but looking forward to it), and there will certainly be some other DC/Marvel stuff along the way, but that's a pretty good look at 90% of what I'll be covering in the next few weeks (and probably longer to get to some of it.)

Why Heidi MacDonald is awesome:
I've read a lot of Con reports, written one of my own, but this is probably the best overview of the general "vibe" of San Diego that I've read. And she never even uses the "show with no buzz" catchphrase that has become the default description, either.

Flametrick Subs:
So it looks like I'll be heading out with some of my group of friends to see the Flametrick Subs (and Satan's Cheerleaders) on Saturday, August 6th at Beerland. I'm working until 10, of course, so I'll be arriving a little late, but the Flametrick shows are always a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to it.

In other news... leaky ceilings are no fun, whether you have them at home (the knowledge that I am going to have to replace our entire roof at some point haunts me) or work (there's a big 'ol leak in front of our counter at work). I'm just saying.

We don't need no water:
So I woke up around 11:45 (hey, cut me some slack, I was up until 3:30) and my wife is saying "If you can take a shower in about five minutes, you better do it, they're about to shut off the water."

Turns out that when they were working in our neighbor's yard yesterday, it was on the water main, and so today they're turning off the water for the whole street. So I rushed through my shower, got my teeth brushed and got dressed. When I came back in to shave (electric razor, thankfully) a few minutes later and tried to rinse out the sink... no water.

Glad I'm going to work, but I feel sorry for my wife and daughter, who are here without water for several hours. It'd probably drive me nuts, just knowing that it wasn't there if I needed it.

Monday routine:
Well, it's been almost a week since I got back from San Diego (I'm about five hours shy of when I actually landed in Austin), and I'm just about rested, recuperated and back into some sort of routine. My Monday routine tends to be putting off mowing the lawn for as long as possible, and that's part of what this posting is all about, too. It'll save me a couple minutes where I'm not thinking "I should really go outside and mow." Not sure why I put it off so much, as it's really not that hard a thing to do, especially when I put on my iPod and listen to music or a podcast or an audiobook the whole time, but I just never feel like doing it.

Also on the chores list today is balancing the checkbook, another chore I put off constantly that always takes about 10-15 minutes when I finally sit down to do it. I did get one thing done today, and that was emailing some of the folks that I talked to in San Diego to follow up and say thank you, hello or whatever. My Con coverage at Fourth Rail is now complete, and includes the Con report, my sketchbook and a review of the sketchbooks I picked up.

And now, for no reason other than I want to, a list of all the stuff I got at San Diego that is awaiting review (not counting the two that are getting reviewed tomorrow, Tricked and The King): Invincible Vol. 1 HC, Bumperboy Loses His Marbles, Passion of Da Keef, Small Favors Vols. 1-2, Arsenic Lullaby: Year of the Fetus, Rose and Isabel, Spiral Bound, aeiou, Scalawag, 1000 Steps to World Domination, Smoke & Guns, Northwest Passage 1, Gunpowder Girl & The Outlaw Squaw, The Fly Chronicles, Ballast, Solstice, Brickman Begins, Afterworks, Crowpsey, Raider 2&3, Yets!, The Travels of Gulliver, And Then One Day #s 1&4, Flytrap, Crispy Cornflakes, Slop #5-6, Hector Spector, Mort Grim, Agent 44, Horus, Sketch Crawling, Wannabee #1, Foxymoron #3-6 & X-Mas Special, Western Tales of Terror #5, Elk's Run #3, Rocketo #0, Henagi the Ninja Girl #1, Hieroglyphs, Fragile Prophet #1, Voicebox Summer Preview 2005, The Last Battle, Hero Squared #1, G.I. Spy #1, Hip Flask: Mystery City, Students of the Unusual #1, Fear Agent Preview and Burn #1-2.

This is of course on top of the roughtly 2 foot stack of graphic novels and single issues in my comp pile to review. So I'm gonna be busy reviewing for a while... but I thought y'all might enjoy a preview of some of the stuff that's going to be in the column for the next month or two.

TV Catch-Up:
Catching up on my TV from the last couple of weeks (Love ya, Tivo!) during the last couple of days. The Inside continues to be watchable but disappointing given the talent involved, so I honestly won't be too sorry to see it go. Battlestar Galactica has started off strong in season two, with some great suspense stuff involving the cylon raiding party aboard Galactica and some really excellent character stuff. Loved the confrontation of sorts between Apollo and Tigh at the end of episode two.

I've also been catching up on The Daily Show. I love the show, especially when some blowhard (such as Bernard Goldberg) comes on and just gets torn to shreds by Jon's logic and humor. I always leave the show a little frustrated with the abuses of power going on in our country right now, though... I'm continually stunned at how much shit this administration (and it's hatchet man, Karl Rove) gets away with, and even when they get called on it, they just kind of skate by and no one is punished for their transgressions. I imagine this is how the conservatives felt when Clinton just deflected every attack they made on him, except with Clinton it was about blowjobs in the White House, with Bush it's about soldiers being in Iraq and a CIA agent whose cover was blown by her own countrymen.