Bread and Roses, but mostly Roses

More on Captain America lampooning Right-Wingers

2010-02-11T09:44:00.004-05:00

UPDATE 3:07 PM 2/11: Earlier today ComicsAlliance posted an excellent and much more thorough piece on this same subject.

This panel from Captain America Reborn #5 would've been a nice end to my post yesterday, because it would've illustrated a point that I failed to make yesterday and that is that Captian America has always been a more-or-less liberal comic for decades.

Here we see the Red Skull in possession of Steve Rogers' body invoking the slogan of Ronald Reagan's first run for President (if the image is a little blurry I apologize for the quality of my scanner, I assure you the Skull-possessed Cap is saying, "TIME FOR A NEW MORNING IN AMERICA"). While like the Tea Party that got Ed Brubaker in so much trouble with FOX this is only a slight jab at the political right, it's part of a long tradition.

For example, back in the '70s Cap took on an ersatz version of himself that had been active in the 1950s (who is actually the villain in the Tea Bag issue, but that's another story) who had been a virulent McCarthyite. While the confrontation with '50s anti-Communism (which btw, was horrible and destroyed people's lives) was two decades late, it illustrates the point that Cap stands for a version of America that is inclusive and that protects civil liberties. It's from the vanilla multiculturalism of this ethos that brings us the Falcon as Cap's buddy. It's also what made Cap the perfect opposite for Iron Man in Civil War.

Captain America, Tea Bagged

2010-02-10T17:21:00.005-05:00

Apparently the Tea Party Movement doesn't think that political free speech is okay in comics. Following the appearance of the panel below in Captain America #602 and the Falcon calling Tea Baggers "angry white people," right wingers have been calling foul.

"I was perplexed by this," London said. "It seems to me there was a clear effort on someone's part to undermine the Tea Party movement."

These people are fools. And hypocrites.

Nancy from Pittsburgh, who commented on this NYT article, says it best:

The tea baggers can dish it out, but they can't take it -- especially when the comic simply copied ACTUAL signs from their astro-turf rallies. What a bunch of whiners!

'Nuff said.

Luke Cage goes to jail

2010-02-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

Earlier today, Newsarama broke the story that as part of Marvel's new Heroic Age, my main man (and yours) Luke Cage will become the leader of a new team of Thunderbolts when the series shifts directions come May, with current author Jeff Parker still at the helm.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, since the late 90s the Thunderbolts have been the stars of Marvel's team book featuring supervillains who are acting as heroes. As Newsarama reporter Chris Arrant rightly points out Thunderbolts has been one of Marvel's most "metamorphic" books. When it got its start, they were a team of supervillains masquerading as heroes during a time when all of the Avengers were sealed in a pocket dimension. As time passed, they learned that doing good was actually quite rewarding and strove for redemption. In its most recent incarnation the team has been ~~SHIELD~~ HAMMER Director Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin)'s crack team of assassins. Entering this new Heroic Age, the book will again be about redemption and the team will be based out of an island supermax prison with Luke Cage as their redemption coach and taskmaster.

My first thought was, "Well, I'm going to be reading Thunderbolts come May." This is, of course, the natural response to any time Luke Cage is included in any comic book. I was hoping he would be on the roster of Ed Brubaker's Secret Avengers, but hey, it's good to know he'll be around and I like Jeff Parker. (And if Wolverine can be in three team books, there's still hope.)

Then I read this gem from the Newsarama interviewer:

let's speak first to their new leader – Luke Cage. I know he's not back in prison, but Cage is an ideal person to lead up these criminal rehabilitation-cum-team program – his origin was him in prison where he traded parole for taking part in an experimental procedure which gave him his powers.

Yes, of course, because Luke Cage was once abused by a guard and then experimented on in prison while serving time because his former best friend planted heroin in his home, that makes him ideal to rehabilitate sociopaths.

Neither of the Marvel guys contradicted the interviewer or pointed out, "Well, yes, for a crime he didn't commit..." And while I agree with Jeff Parker's assertion that, "Luke knows a thing or two about justice, hard choices and second chances," so does, y'know, Spider-Man and Captain America and really any superhero that's interesting to read.

One can list off reasons why Luke Cage is a good leader all day. I mean, the man frickin' lead the Avengers at one of the roughest points in their history and that was a team full of lone wolves. That being said, it seems fairly obvious that he's been picked for this spot because he's the major Marvel superhero for whom having served time is an integral part of his character. And since his aesthetic so caught up in that of 70s blaxploitation film, it's not hard to put two-and-two together why he's the Avenger we most associate with being a criminal despite the fact that the only two crimes he's ever committed (excluding those on Latverian soil) were escaping from a prison where the guard literally tried to kill him by locking him in a chamber of superheated experimental chemicals and violating the Superhuman Registration Act. I just don't know how I feel about the only black Avenger being the guy they send to prison to rehabilitate their former foes.

You know, Hawkeye actually was a criminal who redeemed himself into being a superhero and nobody's hollering, "Hey Clint, you done time, why don't you come lead the Thunderbolts."

I can see Luke taking this on, because he's pro-social like that and has a really strong sense of the individual's responsibility to his/her fellow humans. I'm just afraid that's not what the comic is going to be about.

Let me lay it down. I hate it when Luke Cage is written all hard and bad ass. Don't get me wrong, he's a bad ass, but he's also a softy with a really good sense of humor. I don't want to read umpteen issues of Luke Cage, Ex-Con Hard Ass Laying It Down On Ghost For Misbehavin'. He's more charming than that.

I'm also probably bitter because I deeply want a Heroes For Hire book starring Luke, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Jessica Jones, and everyone's babies written by, say, Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker with someone awesome on art. But, I guess till dreams come true, I'll be reading Thunderbolts.

Rest assured, I'll let you know how I think it is.

What's Really Good

2010-02-03T11:51:00.005-05:00

1. Milestone Forever's first installment comes out TODAY! My peeps know I'm all about the creator owned universe and company put together by McDuffie et al. back in the 1990s that brought us amazing titles like Blood Syndicate and Icon. Unfortunately, it seems like the miniseries, which wraps up the old Milestone continuity and folds it into the mainline DC Universe, has been parred down to two instead of three issues. Although, given how DC has acted since it acquired the rights to use the characters, this should come as no surprise. 5 page preview: HERE.

2. I've finally jumped on reading World of Hurt: the Internet's #1 (and possibly only) Blaxploitation webcomic! It's superb. New strips every Wednesday.

3. Afrodisiac came out. Sadly, my store hasn't gotten my copy yet. Everyone else on the Internet seems to like it.

4. David Brothers is blogging Black Future Month over at 4thLetter!. David is a BAMF. It should be tight as hell.

5. Israeli metal band Orphaned Land has a new album coming out. Also, they have the audacity to call themselves Jewish Muslim Metal and dress like this:

6. The Black Panther cartoon's theme song.

2009-11-16T22:34:00.003-05:00

So, as I have said before, I really love webcomics.

Here is a new little fun friend called Techno Tuesday.

Check it!

Is this not the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

2009-11-13T22:11:00.002-05:00

DCU class of 2009

2009-11-13T21:30:00.005-05:00

Over the past year, we've seen a handful of newish DC characters that have received extended treatment for the first time. Since 2009 is rapidly coming to a close and new DC characters don't have a track record for having a lot of staying power, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about some of the ones on my radar and their prospects in the DC Universe.

In this post I talk about Batwoman, Accomplished Perfect Physician, The Super Young Team, Saint Walker and the Blue Lantern Corps, Larfleeze a.k.a. Agent Orange, Atrocitus and the Red Lantern Corps, Tim Drake as Red Robin, Damian Wayne as Robin, The Tattooed Man, Azrael, and Nightwing & Flamebird in that arbitrary order.

Batwoman -- As has oft been stated, though Batwoman debuted in 2006 as a part of 52, she was in limbo until this year when she took over Detective Comics following Brucie's death. Before, you could make a lot of pretty fair claims that her only characteristics were that she was: A. Rich as fuck. & B. Renee Montoya's ex-girlfriend.

I think it's fair to say Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams' current run on Tec has pretty much destroyed all those criticisms. I won't bother to go into detail about how good Tec starring Kate Kane is right now, because, well, everybody knows it and there are people with bigger soapboxes than mine giving this series rave reviews. I do have two points worth mentioning though:

1. Batwoman is different from the umpteen other woman, often lesbian, protagonists Greg Rucka is writing in mystery comics at any given time (see his new series from Oni Press Stumptown) in that she's not wracked with constant depression and doesn't have any longstanding substance abuse issues. For someone whose twin sister was abducted at a young age and later resurfaced as a cult leader bent on killing her, Kate Kane is fairly well adjusted person with a stable family life. I like that.

2. The biggest reveal of the Batwoman's first issue of stardom in Tec (#854 for those keeping track) was that Kate Kane had been a mousy dyke all along and the lipstick lesbian with ravishing red hair act was something she did to disguise her secret identity. The idea of a superhero changing how she or he performs her or his gender identity (or race, for that matter) is intriguing to me as a cultural critic/academic d0rk. So, it'll be neat to see what's done with that.

Batwoman's Future in the DCU: That a Batwoman named Kate Kane has been an established member of the Batman family in the past works in her favor. So does the notoriety she's been able to garner over the past two years with little to no actual page time. She also has a huge advantage over the rest of the crop new DC characters in that she's easily recognizable even if you don't know there is a Batwoman. It's like--"Oh, a woman dressed as Batman, she must be Batwoman." It's not like if you see Accomplished Perfect Physician you're like--"Oh hey, a Chinese guy in a culturally foreign blue outfit flying around and whistling at people, must be like some kind of Accomplished Perfect Physician!" And, as stated, her series is done by creators who are supercompetent. I think we'll be seeing a fair amount of Ms. Kane in coming years.

Accomplished Perfect Physician -- While we're on the subject of 52 characters that needed to be fleshed out, let's talk about Accomplished Perfect Physician of the Great Ten. For those who don't read as many comics as I do, the Great Ten are the Chinese state-sponsored team of "super-functionaries" in the DCU. Accomplished Perfect Physician is the first of these characters to be treated in a way even slightly more than superficial and this wasn't until last week when he starred in Great Ten #1 written by Tony Bedard with pencils by Scott McDaniel. He's a political dissident, more-or-less, and the rebel of the team. This puts him constantly at odds with the Communist Party and the team's leader August General in Iron. His power is really cool. He can heal and destroy stuff by whistling and clicking at different pitches. I'm kind of obsessed with him right now.

Some of my DC fan Internet colleagues (namely Diamondrock and Scipio) have accused the Great Ten (and by extension Accomplished Perfect Physician) of being little more than Grant Morrison throw away concepts, but I disagree. I'm with Mr. Morrison in thinking we need more new and cool characters to keep superhero universes popping and while I ragged on how DC and Tony Bedard used the word diversity in soliciting this series, on the whole superheroes should be less white and less North American.

In the name intellectual honesty, I will put forward that I don't know enough to know how accurate Bedard's portrayal of Chinese culture and historical religion are. So, I'm going to refrain from commenting on them.

Accomplished Perfect Physician's Future in the DCU: I have no faith in DC's ability to do anything with this character or the rest of the Great Ten beyond the current maxiseries. They don't publish a lot of books about protagonists who aren't either North American or extraterrestrial. The Great Ten will linger in continuity like the Rocket Red Corps and the Global Guardians as things that would exist when you combine the logic of the DCU with the logic of real world geopolitics, but will likely only be brought out as decoration. I could see Accomplished Perfect Physician maybe leaving the Ten to join the Global Guardians or being assigned to them by the Chinese government to get him out of the way.

However, what I think could be a really cool idea is to have Accomplished Perfect Physician join a post-J'onn J'onns/Trinity-are-M.I.A./Hal Jordan-has-defected/Black Canary-is-in-charge Justice League. In the Martian Manhunter's wake, he could be the new Mr. Justice League. Not being under thumb of the Party would be really liberating for him. However, like J'onn, he would not be able to return to his homeland and family (only in this case for fear of persecution). Furthermore, he would also be culturally alienated from his Western colleagues. This might not be what most people would want out of a JLA book, but when par for the course right now is the Atom and Green Lantern torturing criminals while the Green Arrow watches, then I think I'm at least as competent to be making decisions about the future of the JLA as the people who are actually making them.

The Super Young Team -- I accept that many people will always find this team annoying. In fact, I'll accept that they are annoying, objectively speaking. That being said, there's something about Most Excellent Superbat's swagger and Shy Crazy Lolita Canary's drinking problem that bring a smile to my face every time I think about the team. Maybe I wouldn't be so impressed with them if their miniseries hadn't been the only comic in 2009 that was narrated as Twitter updates.

The Super Young Team's Future in the DCU: Like the Great Ten, they'll be in the background as decoration. I don't see this team developing much of a following.

Saint Walker and the Blue Lantern Corps -- Okay, so this guy's head look like that of Dennis Kucinich with a stocking-tentacle sown to the back, but he's got pathos, man. I'll give you that the idea of a corps of six or so really zen dudes who are separate from the Green Lantern Corps and whose hope-based powers include charging Green Lantern's will-powered rings 200% capacity, but have no offensive powers of their own when not in the presence of the will-powered Green Lanterns is very very hokey and a lot like something from a fantasy-based strategy game, but so is pretty much everything coming out of Green Lantern these days.

That being established, Saint Walker's little origin story was the only really entertaining and original part of the over-priced money grab that was BN Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. I love these guys as the gurus of space. I really hope the dude who looks like Ganesha gets developed as a character.

Saint Walker and the Blue Lantern Corps' Future in the DCU: Before I comment here, I want to put forward the caveat that I haven't had time to read this week's issue of Green Lantern Corps, so everything might have already changed.

It would seem unnatural for Ganthet to stay on as the Guardian of the Blue Lantern Corps after Blackest Night is over barring something crazy/awesome like John Stewart being made the sole Guardian of the Universe happening. Maybe Saint Walker and the rest will be given reign of the Blue Power Battery without Guardians or perhaps Saint Walker will be made the blue Guardian. In any event, I hope they stay a part of the cosmic DCU. Though, I can easily imagine all the Blue Lanterns dying, in a last ditch sacrifice effort to defeat Nekron.

Larfleeze a.k.a. Agent Orange -- Everyone is in love with Larfleeze and for good reason. He looks like a Muppet and greedily hoards things. That's a pretty awesome M.O. for a villian. Of the non-Green Lantern Corps, the Orange Lanterns are the most creative concept because they're actually just hard light constructs of people that Larfleeze has killed.

Larfleeze's Future in the DCU: It is only a matter of time before Larfleeze is the ~~Wolverine~~ Deadpool of the DCU and everyone is an Orange Lantern.

Atrocitus and the Red Lantern Corps -- I know he and the Red Lantern Corps are supposed to be monster villains created by the Guardians' arrogance and that's supposed to be really frigtening and compelling like Oh no! Godzilla is destroying Toyko, maybe we should not have made nuclear weapons because now we cannot control the monster we have created! but Atrocitus is ugly, and is vomitting blood in that picture, and doesn't compel me.

Atrocitus and the Red Lantern Corps' Future in the DCU: I feel like the Red Lantern Corps isn't a sustainable thing to have floating around the DCU. They'll all retreat to Sector 666 and froth in lava and vomit blood once Blackest Night is done.

Tim Drake as Red Robin -- Following Bruce Wayne's death, Tim Drake went from being one of the coolest and most competent people in the DCU to a depressing and delusional character in a really annoying costume.

Tim Drake as Red Robin's Future in the DCU: Unfortunately, Tim Drake's character has kind of been developed into a corner. Even before the introduction of Damian Wayne as Robin, who actually is a Boy Wonder, Tim had lost his credibility as the young-up-and-coming-Robin by facing so much death (dad, girlfriend, two best friends...), by being so ridiculously awesome, and by being too old. Still as long as Dick is around, he can't be the Robin-who-has-graduated-to-being-his-own-man. Furthermore, they can't kill him and make him the dead-tragic-Robin, because that would be too depressing and has been done before. I guess that's why they've decided to make him the crazy-ass-Robin-who-suffers-from-paranoid-delusions.

I don't know what the future holds for Tim, but I really hope it involves a reunited Johns-era Teen Titans (now that they're all alive again) and doesn't involve that ugly Red Robin costume. It doesn't necessarily have to be even written in a book anywhere as a story. I'd just like the end of this Red Robin series to be there and leave it be. He's in the background chilling with them or something. You'd see him in the background at companywide events. He's been on the reserve JLA roster.

Damian Wayne as Robin: I love Damian. He's such a little bastard (no pun intended). In the set of all functional Robins, Batman's ten year old son who was raised by R'as Al Ghul is probably the most twisted you could make work for an extended period. It'll be really interesting to watch him learn how to be a human being.

Damian Wayne as Robin's Future in the DCU: Damian is Robin now. End of story. Start making plans for a new Young Justice book featuring him and Wally West's kids.

The Tattooed Man: Okay, so I know this guy has been around as a villain for a few years, but his recent (anti?)heroic miniseries merits his discussion here. Unlike other DC superheroes, who are loved by people, the police and governments and rarely (excepting Kryptonians for the next couple months) cause political or social controversy, black DC superheroes, with the one exception of Mr. Terrific, are more like Marvel superheroes.

* Consider Superman, Jimmy Olsen, and Metropolis PD trying to bring in Black Lightning for murder.

* Consider that time John Stewart was arrested for crimes commited by Hal Jordan and then extradited to apartheid ~~South Africa~~ Namibia where he was brutally tortured and then when he escaped joined the anti-apartheid movement and then Superman made Hal Jordan reign him in because they knew better about correct responses to racial apartheid than John Stewart and then John Stewart went to space and accidentally didn't save the planet Xanshi from blowing up and 10 billion people died and J'onn J'onns yelled at him and then Hal Jordan's crazy on again/off again girlfriend violently murdered John Stewart's wife for no reason. Yeah, that time sucked.

* Consider Steel becoming national persona non-grata and blamed for terrorist attacks on DC when his secret identity was revealed on television.

Even Cyborg used to be in a gang. That's why, while I thoroughly enjoyed Final Crisis Aftermath Ink it felt like I was reading more of the same. Still, The Tattooed Man's response to the perceived moral ambiguity of his situation has been interesting and not standard DC. I really don't understand how he's going to maintain the revenue stream to keep gangs under his control without drugs and prostitution, but it'll be interesting to see him try.

The Tattooed Man's Future in the DCU: Well, given that cliffhanger of him shaking hands with Deathstroke, I guess we'll all just have to read Titans to find out.

Azrael -- For a character whose been around for such a short time, Michael Lane has a had quite a few really good stories told around him or involving him, but at present I can't say I know the character very well or have a sense that he's the master of his own fate. Azzarello's first issue of the new on-going was really strong, but the story was more about the mystery that Lane was uncovering and told us little about Lane himself other than that his personal life is a wreck which should be self-evident given: A. the amount of weird mental and physical programing the army did on him to make him an ideal replacement for Batman and B. the fact that he spends his nights as a sword-wielding religious vigilante, wearing a suit of armor that is slowly driving him insane.

Azrael's Future in the DCU: Pretty short, I'd venture. Did I mention that the armor is slowly driving him insane? I should add that the first issue of his series ends with a flash forward to an image of him crucified.

Nightwing & Flamebird -- These two are my absolute favorite. I love how they fly around and punch stuff and make out in the sky. I am so envious of them. They're even cooler now that they're wearing more Superman-like costumes. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I'm head over heels for all the protagonists' of the Superbooks right now.

Nightwing & Flamebird's Future in the DCU: If we take prophecy seriously, and it's superhero comics so we should take it more seriously than we do in real life, we shouldn't be too hopeful because Chris and Thara are avatars of two immortal gods/lovers who are destined to die while saving New Krypton. I'm not too sad about this though. Unsustainability has been a given in the New Krypton set up from the get go and it's part of its charm. We've all known from day one that Kandor will be back in the bottle and Mon-El will be back in the Phantom Zone before all is said in done. That's what makes the little taste we're getting so scrumptious.

Let me know what you think!

Also, I'm sure I've missed some characters that are worth mentioning. Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts about them as well.

Man Man - Feathers

2009-11-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

...what?

2009-11-03T18:27:00.001-05:00

This, apparently, is a real thing.

The Seedy Seeds - Drive Me To The Center

2009-11-01T23:23:00.001-05:00

Interactive Game!

2009-10-29T20:32:00.003-04:00

Let's play, "Find what's wrong with this passage from Final Crisis Aftermath Ink #5 of 5." Go:

"That corruption is being carried out in a variety of fashions: offers sedation to the troubled masses in the form of crystal meth comfort packages as a way to sleep easier for those who've decided it's impossible to love they neighbor and relief to worried citizens who feel overwhelmed by the burden of anonyminty."

This isn't very hard.

DC Comics Halloween Special 2009~!

2009-10-28T21:53:00.001-04:00

BOO!

No Halloween holiday season is complete without the DC Comics Halloween Special. I should've received it last week, but I got shorted. Fortunately, my good friends at Collectibles, Etc. righted the situation in time for Halloween!

I wish it weren't six bucks an issue. If it were cheaper, I'd buy a stack to hand out to trick or treaters.

Treats:

* Ibraim Roberson's beautiful illustrations of Bizarro World.

* Kilowog dressed as the Anti-Monitor. (see above)

* Mirror Master versus Bloody Mary (you know the Bloody Mary from when you were in first grade and your friends wanted you turn out the lights in the bathroom and call her through the mirror but then you were [rightly] too afraid).

* The second most cogent Tim Drake story since his taking on the Red Robin mantle.

* young Dick Grayson's Halloween costume.

* Damian's Halloween hijinks.

* Amy Wolfram's Ravager strip.

* Wonder Woman getting punked by the Teen Titans.

* Billy Tucci's Flash v Superman race story.

* Lois & Clark as Daphne & Freddie.

Tricks:

* the poorly placed, disturbing segway into Guy Gardner's troubled childhood in an otherwise funny and happy story.

* the Outsiders story in which writer Michael Siglain and artist Kelley Jones tried to out do each other with bad writing and bad art. Everybody lost.

I don't know if it was worth the six dollars, but I do know that it was fun and that Halloween wouldn't have felt like Halloween without it. Good job, DC!

The notes all bend and reach above the trees

2009-10-25T15:58:00.005-04:00

I know I already posted some Sunday Afternoon Jams, but I forgot how much of an October weather sort of song this is (and as it is the last Sunday in October) and since it's been a year since I accidentally got kicked in the butt by the guy who plays the saw in this band at the Elephant 6 surprise holiday show- we should listen to some NMH.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Hope you had a great weekend.

p.s. Will and I watched Blacula the other night.

Cinematic genius. Lots of fun.

"A freaky permutation, something like Voltron"

2009-10-25T03:51:00.006-04:00

I've been going through my music collection tonight and I'm listening to Of Montreal's album that came out around this time last year (or at least, I remember first listening to it on the drive up to visit Morgan for Birthweek)
It's really weird to be nostalgic about last year, but Skeletal Lamping makes me nostalgic about last year...

Of Montreal's An Eluardian Instance:

makes me think of faraway friends (cough, Sarah, cough). So An Eluardian Instance is for you, babe.
A photo from their concert in Covington. Where one of the stage dancer people FELL ON Sarah. hehe.

Id Engager:

Everyone seemed to pick on Skeletal Lamping when it came out, but I think that was only because Of Montreal's previous album, Hissing Fauna You Are Not The Destroyer, is just so good. I really like SL, it has it's merits. Great to dance to. Some really neat noises. Catchy lyrics. Oddly filthy.

Live version of For Our Elegant Caste:

Most vivid memory of this album: taking photo, being alone in the dark room and making a fool of myself dancing my ass off to For Our Elegant Caste and Id Engager.

Ohhhh Miley!

2009-10-24T13:01:00.004-04:00

Bread and Roses official stance on this song: Yeah! ...Moving our hips like yeah?

Not crazy about that video (she says she wearing a cardigan in the lyrics, but is not wearing one in the video??) but yeah.
Gotta love a girl whose real name is "Destiny Hope Cyrus".

It's catchier than the swine flu, ya'll.

Even if you don't like it, you have to admit it's better than her father's song.

Comics Round Up: Reign of the Indies

2009-10-22T18:45:00.001-04:00

Before we kick off things this week, I'm going to say something obvious. I REALLY REALLY LIKE SUPERHEROES AND SUPERHERO COMICS. I decorate my desk with those little Made-in-China 3 inch Justice League Unlimited action figures and organize my week around driving to Lexington to pick up my books. I spend more money than I'd care to talk about reading comics and when we're not busy at work, many hours keeping up with stuff on the Internet. Hell, I even write a blog that is largely about them.

My friends and acquaintances know this about me. This means that as the concept of "graphic novels" and non-superhero comics become more and more popular (sometimes even trendy), I tend to find myself in situations with folks who are only into graphic novels and don't read superhero comics who feel like telling about this preference. Truth be told, and with notable exceptions, more often that not these people have usually just read The Watchmen and/or something by Neil Gaiman or took a graphic novel in college and now feel very literary about their taste in comics even though they don't really read comics on regular basis. This is like having only ever listened to Straight Outta Compton and saying, "I only listen to good rap." Well, yes, that would technically be true, but you wouldn't really listen to rap in that case now would you?

I want to send out a message to snobby/literary art comics "fans." I am actually reading a fair number of these non-superhero comics and to paraphrase the great statesman Nikita Kruschev, "I WILL BURY YOU." This week I went over a precipice because I purchased a number of indie/Vertigo books greater than the number of Marvel and equal to the number of mainline DC books I purchased. On top of this, I bought two Vertigo trades, so if you pull that "I only like graphic novels" hipster shit on me, I promise you I can be the bigger hipster and still enjoy my five Superman titles a month. This is not to say I have a problem with casual readers of graphic fiction who don't read superhero comics. That's fine. But don't front like you're better than me or have more refined tastes than I do. I have made a lifestyle choice, so don't trifle.

Now, speaking of those indie/Vertigo books...

Air #14 (DC/Vertigo): I haven't actually read this yet, but I want to acknowledge that it came out yesterday and that I bought it and rep Air. While, I'm waiting for issues 11-13 to arrive from Ebay, to actually read #14, I picked up the second trade paperback last week and was quite impressed. It's a superb series and one of the few books on the stands about a woman that's actually written by one. I demand you buy the very reasonably priced first volume right now or I WILL BURY YOU.

Citizen Rex #4 of 6 (Dark Horse): For those not paying attention, this is Los Bros Hernandez newest venture into the world of comics. I should recommend this series based solely on the fact that a major character in the story is a crazed one-armed robot in a trenchcoat. Also, the phrase "Ritalin sex" was used in the recap and SOMEONE gets their hands chopped off at the end. Beyond all that, this series is visually cool and seems to have a good story, but honestly I keep forgetting what happened in the previous month's installment and my back issues are a wee bit disorganized right now. I'm mostly reminded that I should read all those Love & Rockets scans I have sitting on my hard-drive.

Underground #2 of 5 (Image): This is Jeff Parker and Whiteout artist Steve Lieber's cool story of intrigue in a pristine, government-protected cave somewhere in eastern Kentucky. What strikes me about the series is what a good visual story-teller Steve Lieber is. One gets the sense of how otherworldly and disorienting being, y'know, underground in cave could be. There's also a cool scene where there's a scuffle and Lieber and the colorist Ron Chan do a good job of conveying how chaotic and disorienting something like that would be underground in a cave. Also, there are bats. Grade: A

Chew #5 (Image) rounds out introductory Taster's Choice story arc of John Layman and Rob Guillory's cult hit about Tony Chu, a detective with the gift of cibopathy, meaning he gets "psychic impressions from whatever he ingests." Over the last five issues Layman's done a good job developing Tony from a city level police detective into a hardened federal investigator who eats dead dogs and other gross stuff for the cause. There's a doozy of a surprise ending. I feel like I'm on the cusp of something that's going to be huge when I'm reading this series. Grade: A+

And as for my normal fair...

Somehow, this week's issue of my favorite book, The Amazing Spider-Man #609, was actually pretty lackluster. Perhaps this whole Ben Reilly/Clone Saga stuff is better left in the '90s. Screwball's a cool villain though. Also, the final, third issue of Blackest Night Superman revealed what I had suspected from the get go--that the miniseries was largely pointless. It had some high points, but I'm glad it's the only non-Green Lantern Blackest Night tie-in I've elected to read.

Final Crisis Aftermath Dance #5 of 5: This series has had some of the best single panels and one liners I've ever read, but it's written in a style that is intentionally disorienting and with characters that are not traditional superheroes in a way that is also disorienting. I'm too lazy to hunt for awesome scans right now, but let's just say I got into this book because Most Excellent Superbat narrates the story via his Twitter account and in this the final issue of the series invents a new social networking technology that is described as such:

"Welcome to the new rage in social networking. Our messages carried via protein molecules delivered directly into a digital centrifuge. Disseminated to everyone logged into the system. Everyone's minutiae all at once. Moment-to-moment nonsense. The fourth state of communication."

Color me satisfied. Grade: B+

Azrael #1: I have to hand it to Fabian Nicieza. Out the gate on the Catholic secret vigilante on-going with a subtle, well-written, and morally ambiguous story about sexual abuse of children in the Church. And Ramon Bachs art seems to work for the series. His style really really communicates just how very dirty Harvey Bullock is. Big cliffhanger. Grade: A+

Supergirl #46: It was good. Nothing new to say about the series.

Thunderbolts #137: I was just happy to see Power Man and Iron Fist in a buddy story. That is was well-written makes it even better. There's really no way to talk about this issue with ruining the plot. I'm also not really into this whole Dark Reign thing. Grade: B+

Alright, I have somewhere to be. Peace.

Satire! ...from livejournal no less

2009-10-20T14:50:00.004-04:00

As a general rule, I don't take anything that comes from LiveJournal very seriously. Maybe this is a gendered, class, or educational bias on my part, but I'm not generally impressed with the level of discourse that takes place there.

That being said, I do peruse When Fangirls Attack whenever they post, and this juicy bit of satire from gargoylekitty on the absurdity of the Huntress' costume was too good not to reblog:

She Says, I Like Long Walks and Sci-fi Movies

2009-10-18T14:33:00.004-04:00

A couple little nuggets for you this Sunday afternoon:

1. Fun time arting and hanging out with Ryan and the guys from Quarantine Comics at Movie Tavern last night. I should've took pictures for the blog, but it didn't occur to me at the time.

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2. I've been pretty obsessed with this song lately, so here is Andrew Bird's Fake Palindromes.
Old news since 'Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs' (the album which Fake Palindromes is on) came out in 2005, but... I thought you might enjoy this creepy little lovely song.

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3. If you like old school 19th century facial hair (or just pictures from the early days of photography) you might want to check out this blog: Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century.
It's full of tintype and waxed mustache goodness.
An fine example:

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4. Over at Postmodernbarney they have a lovely post full of Uncomfortable Plot Summaries that are pretty funny.
Some of my favorites?

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Peasant girl develops Stockholm Syndrome.
BLADE: Obsessed loner stalks minority group.
DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women.
E.T.: Out-of-control pet causes mayhem, sadness.
GHOSTBUSTERS: Unemployed college professors destroy hotel with nuclear weapons.
JUNO: Teen fails to get abortion, ruins lives.
TWILIGHT: Girl gives up college for stalker.
LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property.

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5. John Boehner, I hope you know that you are a total jerk.

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I'm off to try to GET THINGS ACCOMPLISHED. Because I feel like I could be productive today, and I need that in my life. So I hope you all have a great afternoon and that you too can be productive today! :D

Meanwhile...

2009-10-17T14:38:00.016-04:00

You may file this under 'too little too late' but there was this very interesting comic book inspired art show that happened around the time of the San Diego comic con. (You know, this summer???)

Sponsored by Subtext the show was called "Meanwhile...At the Hall of Justice". It was supposed to explore our beloved comic book heroes being caught doing things that wouldn't be classified as 'heroic'.

I was looking at some of the work for it today and thought you might enjoy some eye candy on this chilly October Saturday.

Parlor Tricks for the Rabble by Aaron Jasinksi flips the theme somewhat and protrays our favorite green archnemesis supergenius Dr. Doom handing out some ice cream to excited children.

Ken Garduno's Incident shows the caped crusader coexisting with some of the seedy underbelly of Gotham.

The Little Friends Of Printmaking take on Plastic Man and a hot day with Hot Plas.

(For those interested, my favorite [and really probably only] printmaking blog, Printeresting, did a fuzzy little interview/studio tour with Little Friends of Printmaking recently. You can read it here. )

and N.C. Winters' explores the saddest Batman with "Darkest Knight"

See Subtext's past events for more art (here, here, here) and more art at Hypebeast's article on the show.

If you are bored, be sure to check out the links to the artist's website on the bottom of Subtext's blog.
They had some great contributors to the show (and are totally worth a look or two).
Including one of my favorite illustrators, Meg Hunt. (For the life of me, I could not find the piece she submitted to this show. )

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Oh, and if you're in the Lexington, Kentucky area Quarantine Comics and The Movie Tavern are having a little party opening event for the movie Where The Wild Things Are. It starts at 6pm. Good times.

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Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

New riffs on Blaxploitation in my relatively near future

2009-10-16T16:00:00.002-04:00

Last night, my friend Lissa Jean facebooked me to remind me that the satirical nouveau Blaxploitation film Black Dynamite (trailer below) opened in select cities the week. I have a notion it will make it's way to the Kentucky Theatre at some point, if not I'll have to get the DVD or download it or something.

Then, earlier today, I was poking around PopCultureShock and came across a solicit for this fly looking graphic novel coming out in Decemember called Afrodisiac:

There’s cats, gats, spats, and feathered hats! Action as big as a Georgia ham and wool so fine it’ll blow your mind! Lock up your daughters, come hell or high water, cause here comes the king of the concrete jungle!
96 4C pages
6 ” x 9 ” HC, $14.95 USD
ISBN 978-1-935233-06-0
Shipping December 2009
Diamond Order Code: OCT09 0658

Wait through the ad, and you can dig this comic's trailer also.

Ad House books will also be selling 100 copies of a special edition Afrodisiac at 25 bucks a pop, if you're so inclined.

Also in spirit of the Blaxploitation, check out Chris Sims' Dracula Week review of Scream, Blacula, Scream! over at the ISB.

That's all I got for you today. Have a good weekend.

Comics Round Up: A Tale of Two Weeks

2009-10-15T16:50:00.004-04:00

Despite being a really light week for me at the comic book store, it was a really solid one. This means that I'm able to get my review out tonight and have the time to touch on some stuff from last week.

For those who of you that don't have the same pull list that I do (the fact that you exist is still shocking to me) or don't pay attention to the books you buy, I want to make that observation that last week was unofficial release all your mainstream black superhero titles at once week. Marvel released Black Panther #9, Luke Noir #3, and Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural #1 and DC rocked the first part of their two part series leading into the new Azrael on-going in Batman Annual #27. If a similar publishing schedule keeps up, we should all get together and feel really clever by snarkily calling it 'Black Wednesday' every month.

Luke Cage: Noir #3 of 4: I'm really torn on this series. Martinbrough's art maintains its cool desired effect of evoking a gritty 1920s and Benson keeps the story just clever and interesting enough for me not to hate it, but we're 3 issues into a 4 issue miniseries about a character I really like set in a time period that I find interesting and nothing has happened to so far to make me really excited for the next issue or justify the $4 cover price to me (but that's Marvel for you). I guess the book is good, but I'm confident that a better Luke Cage: Noir series could've been written--though, I'd keep the art exactly the same. Grade: B

Spider-Man 1602 #1 of 5, on the other hand, opens up and miniseries that has me really engaged from the get go and fairly excited about the next issue. What I like about this issue is that it managed to catch the reader up on the background of 1602verse Spider-Man and Virginia Dare while still telling a self-contained story and setting us up for a self-contained arc. If some kid accidentally received this comic for her birthday, she could easily read it and enjoy the story without having to get her hands on the rest of the miniseries. We need more comics like that and Jeff Parker knows how to deliver them. Grade: A

Black Panther #9: Maberry has totally turned this book around. It's Birds of Prey meets Black Panther meets James Bond. If you like cool gadgets, mystery, and butt kickin', you are letting yourself down by not reading this. Grade: A

Batman Annual #27 & Detective Comics Annual #11: This two parter is our transition from last week to this week. These books' basic purpose is to remind us that the new Azrael introduced earlier this year in the Death's Dark Knight exists and that Fabian Nicieza is a really good story-teller. Continuity-wise, the reader learns that the Question knows that the current Batman used to be Nightwing and that Harvey Bullock recognizes Renee Montoya as the Question because he likes women with voluptuous booties.

The crux of the plot is that there's a secret ancient sin-loving cult that wants to destroy the church and is trying to kidnap the great great great etc grandson of a wealthy Gothamite for their evil plot. In a classic case of Batmanian wanton child endangerment, the Major Crimes Unit and Batman conspire to have Robin pose as the child. This allows for a cool team up involving the new Batman, the new Robin, the new Azrael, and the new Question and for Nicieza to show that he's really good at writing dialogue and plotting. J. Calafiore's art in Batman Annual #27 is beautiful, but Tom Mandrake's in Tec Annual #11 seems rushed and thus a little sloppy. Over all, the story was a really fun read. It makes me wish they were giving Batman to Nicieza instead of Tony Daniel.

Grade: A

Adventure Comics #3: As much as I'm not feeling Blackest Night, I have to say that Johns' work on Adventure Comics has been a precious and twee treasure for the past three months and I hold it dear to my heart. In this issue, Superboy reunites with his bestfriend, former Robin Tim Drake who now wears a really stupid costume and is called Red Robin. They have a heart-to-heart underneath Paris in an subterranean lab formerly occupied by Lex Luthor from which Tim once stole cloning equipment to clone Superboy while he was dead, because he was lonely. During their chat Tim has a moment of clarity that's been uncharacteristic for him since Bruce Wayne's death:

TIM SPEAKS THE TRUTH!

The Legion back up is about Polar Boy and Sun Boy. It's good too. There's also an ad for a World's Finest miniseries involving all the new Super- and Bat- characters that I'm pretty excited about. Grade: A+

Action Comics #882, The Hunt for Reactron, pt. 3: Speaking of Super-Things, all the Superman books are so good right now! There are always cool and impossibly cute things happening in them even amidst all the dying and destruction of sewage systems. I have this feeling that once all of this New Krypton stuff is over, the full run of all the comics from Brainiac on are going to be the thing in my collection that I'm most happy I own. Grade: A

Nomad #2: Rafael Albuquerque's cover alone made this issue worth buying--even at the $4 cover price. But to make things better, with every cool Nomad #2 cover featuring iconic images of Nomad and the Falcon, you get a cool story by Sean McKeever about the emotional trials and travails of a dimensionally displaced superhero teenager. McKeever excels at young person comics. This book is a real treat. Grade: A

Uncanny X-Men #516: Matt Fraction is an amazing writer because he can write a scene in which Magneto comes off as a really reasonable guy and Professor X seems like a raging douche. And Greg Land's art is beautiful. I can't imagine how Uncanny could be better. Grade: A

Green Lantern Corps #41: This book is still good, but I have this sinking feeling that the events taking place in it are finally going to bleed into the main plot of Blackest Night which has been abrupt and disappointing. I'm also afraid for Kilowog's life and not looking forward to inevitable angsty fall out of this Kyle-Soranik-zombie Jade situation. But I'll stop whining now. Grade: B

G.I. Origins #8: Larry Hama was back on this issue, thus so was I! Scralett beats up some terrorists from a fictional European country and belittles some C.I.A. operatives. Snake Eyes does some soulsearching. And there's a good cliffhanger. Grade: A

Aight, I'm out. Peace.

Oops, actually Tuesday

2009-10-14T01:56:00.005-04:00

Sunday afternoon jams... didn't jam because I was on FALL BREAK. woo.
Anyway, this Tuesday evening/Wednesday Morning can have a jam too.

I've been listening to this song on repeat.
Because it is peppy enough to get me to get my homework done!

Noah and The Whale: Five Years Time

Yes. I know you've heard it before. In that Prius commercial. It's a good song. (sorry the vid cuts out near the end. You can see the whole one that won't let me embed here)

Has anyone see that Merill Lynch commerical that uses The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize?"
You know that song, right?
If not:

The Flaming Lips: Do You Realize? (live on David Letterman)

That song kicks ass and made me cry the first time I heard it.
It's weird to hear it on the TV.

ANYWAY
HAVE A GOOD WEEK YA'LL.

For the bored there is always Hulu

2009-10-09T18:46:00.006-04:00

Did you know you could watch Billy Zane as The Phantom in the 1996 film 'The Phantom' for free online?

Now you do.
Wikipedia tells me that Bruce Campbell was considered for the role, but Billy Zane, apparently, really liked the comic and wanted it so much.

Hulu also has Sinbad: Son of a Preacher Man and The Incredible Hulk Returns if you are so inclined.

Have a good weekend.

Wow

2009-10-09T09:41:00.002-04:00

(h/t Morgan)

Ironically, I have no idea what the dude who put on the KKK outfit to make his point is jabbering about.

24 hour Comic Book Day redux

2009-10-06T21:04:00.001-04:00

I'd have gotten up on describing the events of Saturday night and the wee hours of Sunday morning sooner, but I've had my mind pummeled into mush by data entry well into the evening lately. To give you a sense of my mental state, it recently struck that it's a good idea to listen to look up ABBA's official channel on YouTube. Yeah. I rule. A lot.

Anyway, I lasted at Collectibles, Etc until past 7 in the morning. Shooting the shit with Juett and my new artist friend Ryan Moffett. It was a really good time.

Rather than describe everything that happened that evening, like the time I randomly mentioned Chumbawumba (soundtrack for this post in YouTube video below) in reference to Mark Millar's work and Juett burst out laughing like I had said something hilarious, I thought it would be cool to look at everything I purchased or consumed during the day long festivities of 24 Comic Book Day.

The Morning

woke up around 10am

2 frozen waffles
an episode of The Brave and the Bold costarring Bat-mite
an episode of Clone Wars

The Afternoon

went down to the office for lunch etc

a vegetarian feast from Taco Bell
the latest episode of Smallville
an episode Teen Titans in which Cyborg and Bumblebee fight Brother Blood
2 beers

The Evening/Morning

rolled up on Atomic Cafe at 8 or so

a veggie sampler
a Rum Runner (rum, banana liquer, other stuff?)
a Jamaican-Me-Crazy shooter (rum, lemon rum, sour mix, other stuff?)
a Red Stripe
(and the clencher) half a bottle of Hennessy
4 Red Bulls (also a clencher)

at a nicely discounted rate
+ some cool Bronze Age comics, mostly feat. Black Lightning (and including my favorite Black Lightning cover), but also a cool looking comic about Johnny Cash as well
+ The New Fantastic Four hardcover feat. Black Panther and Storm
+ Revenge of the Green Lanterns paperback
+ issues 2-12 of this cute series called Sentinel by Sean McKeever and UDON about a teenager who finds well, a Sentinel in his dad's junkyard and has a lot of feelings
+ Marvel Legends Falcon action figure
+ The Pro prestige format-length graphic novel by Garth Ennis and Amanda Conner about a superpowered sex worker
+ The entirity of the original Star Trek on VHS (this was given to me by Juett who mysteriously had it in the trunk of his car personally, for free)

Also, my friend Ryan did this cool sketch of Black Lightning for me also for free:

Now what stands out in the analysis of the evening is that despite the fact that it was 24 hour Comics Day and I spent the majority of the evening/wee hours in a well-lit comic book store not drinking, I somehow managed to spend more money on booze than comics. I am a champion.

Much love. Tony and Juett did a great job and should pat themselves on the back.

See y'all at the store tomorrow if I can make it out of data hell.

A Couple of Things That Might Be Pertinent To Your Interests

2009-10-04T21:41:00.009-04:00

or at least they are pertinent to mine:

1. Last week's episode of the Simpsons. (Hulu Link)

In it's 21st season The Simpsons is a show that is now old enough to buy you a beer.

The Premire episode aired last Sunday. 'Homer The Whopper' featured a plot that was a mix of comic book movies and weight loss.

Written in part by Knocked Up actor Seth Rogen, it features Comic Book Guy and his overnight success in the industry with his book 'Everyman' and Homer's subsequent hiring as the star in the 'Everyman' movie.

It's cute that they think kids still read comics.

Grade: C

Not great, but not the 'worst episode ever'.

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2. My favorite Printmaking related blog 'Printresting' has a short entry that covers SPX 2009 here.

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3. I've got a wealth of comics for my birthday. (Okay, more like 7, but they are either trades or novels... Seven is a lot for me.) Will gave me a certificate to our store and I also bought some off Amazon. So, maybe I'll not be so lazy and write reviews of them soon.

Oh yes. I can roll in comics, man. ROLL IN THEM. MAKE IT RAIN (comic books). :D

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4. Sunday Afternoon Jams:

Sliimy's Wake Up
Since you'll probably be reading this on a Monday, I think this is a very good Monday morning song. Wake up! :D

5. I'm sure Will has a post planned all about the great adventure at Collectibles, Etc. during 24 hour comic book day. I just have to put my 2 cents real fast and say that it was very much of a fun time. A lovely few hours on a Saturday night. :)

Just a reminder what Metamorpho looked in the 90s

2009-10-03T16:14:00.000-04:00

I was rereading some old Grant Morrison/Howard Porter JLA stories the other night when I came across this:

Holy shit.

JLA was pretty much the first series I ever followed (if only in trades) and was pretty formative to me as a comic book reader. However, what my 14 year old brain didn't realize when I was ordering earlier trade paperbacks off Amazon was just how 90s Howard Porter's/all of comics' art really was back then. I mean, everyone remembers the Super-Mullet, but Metamorpho? Jesus!

Comics Round Up Returns!

2009-10-03T15:48:00.001-04:00

What what! I'm back with a hard and heavy 24 Hour Comic Book Day edition of the best Internet column that no one reads: Comics Round Up! I'd like to start this week's column by commenting on how this week reminded that it's been a really rough couple of months for black men in the DC Universe. While, Final Crisis Aftermath Ink #5 finally brought us Eric Wallace's take on Grant Morrison's Tattooed Man, I have to say I'm a little disappointed that involves vague "tribal" dudes with bones through their noses in an ethnic country that doesn't exist. Maybe I'm being a hypocrite here because I love the Black Panther mythology, but I think all Kirby tech and garb messes with all the bone-through-nose elements of the story enough to make it pallatable.

My ish with Tattooed Man’s new origin aside, it really sucks to be that guy right now since he’s been put in jail for murder, kicked out of the Justice League, and estranged from his wife and kids. The story is still really good though! And Fiorentino’s art is still tip top. The book gets an A on both those fronts. Ink is a good illustration of how the kind of stuff that happens to ALL superheroes in the Marvel Universe (wrongful imprisonment, public ire) can also happen to black superheroes in the DC Universe. (And apparently Supergirl, but that's another story.)

Other black men in trouble in the DCU this week include Steel, who we learn is recovering from his massive beat down from Atlas a few months back in Superman in Ivy Town somewhere.

John Stewart still confronting a Black Lantern Xanshi in his glorious one page of Green Lantern #46:

And, saddest of all, Mr. Terrific in Justice Society of America #31:

Okay, down to the regular reviews in which I show I’ve become jaded.

X-Force #19: This issues is largely about X-23 carrying around her severed arm and running from ~~SHIELD~~ HAMMER agents. Can’t say I know any of the young X-Men at all, but this book is definitely my trashy guilty pleasure. Actually, I don’t feel guilty about it and this month’s issue wasn’t all that good, so actually this month it was kind of just the trashy comic that I read. I mean, Domino holds a gun to the throat of one of the Stepford Cuckoos so that’s kind of cool. Mike Choi and Sonia Oback’s art is solid as always, but this book has been going downhill for months now. I hope it gets better with the upcoming Necrosha storyarc, because I’m genuinely interested in the concept of X-Force as Cyclops’ secret team of assassins, but three bucks for a boring book is three bucks too much! Grade: C

Justice Society of America #31: This is another title that I keep threatening to drop. In retrospect, Geoff Johns’ last run on the book was boring and while I see what Willingham and Sturges are trying to do with the whole Magog versus Flash and Green Lantern for the soul of the next generation of superheroes, I already read Kingdom Come like a decade ago. Furthermore, Magog in the DCU is annoying. Even though he’s a stand-in for Cable, I think he’d be a better fit in the ‘90s Image stable than at either of the big two. I just hate that guy. Also, I’m mad they killed Mr. Terrific. Boo on that. That being said, some of the action in the story has been kind of fun, so I’ll withhold judgment till the end of this storyarc next month.

Amazing Spider-Man #607: You know, at first glance that cover by J. Scott Campbell and Edgar Delgado is sexy, but then you notice that she’s weirdly disproportionate and kind of creepy looking and it ruins the effect. I know that it seems futile to constantly be on mainstream superhero comics about this stuff, but if this is the world we inhabit as fans, we ought to be.

As for the story, Black Cat and Spider-Man sneak into a hotel room and have sex in the dark where she can’t (re)learn his secret identity. I’m glad that Peter finally gets laid and stuff, but I think his little heart is going to be broken. He doesn’t seem like the kind of dude who can just hook up as it were. He should really just play that song by Kelly Clarkson on his Ipod all day instead of having sex with Black Cat. After they do it they fight an alchemist villain called Diablo and Black Cat keeps tongue kissing Spidey in public. The latter is kind of gross, but I like alchemy so that's pretty cool. Good comic over all. Grade: A

Marvel Divas #3 of 4: This series is my favorite thing ever. Can we have another miniseries or an on-going even? This issue was about how bomb ass single lady superheroes deal with breast cancer. Black Cat is much cooler in this book than she is ASM. Monica Rambeau aka Photon aka Captain Marvel is officially my favorite character ever. She will not be added to the baby mama list, because she is too much woman for me. I really encourage everyone to go out and read this despite how poorly it was marketed. It is some bomb ass shit. Grade: A+

Green Lantern #46: Has anyone else noticed that the issues of GL and GLC tying into Blackest Night are way better than issues of Blackest Night themselves? Just an observation. Still frustrated that John Stewart only gets a page a month. Grade: A-

Superman #692: Despite everything bad you’ve read on the Internet about A Cry For Justice (which seem largely true), this book by James Robinson is pure gold. This issue deals with the aftermath of last month’s big Superman book crossover, primarily the assumed death of Mon-El and the destruction of the Metropolis sewer system. I doubt it would be a good jumping on point, but it definitely kept the drama up. I love this series more everyday and think about it all the time. Grade: A+

New Mutants #5: There were three pages or so of Warlock flying around doing stuff like this.

Lindsay would love it.

Nuff said. Grade: A

Thor #603: While Asgard has moved to Latveria, I'm glad to see that Thor and the Warriors 3 are still chillin' in smalltown Oklahoma. I love the idea of Volstagg making an omelette at a greasy breakfast diner. Much better than the mediocre annual that came out last week. I think this is JMS' last issue on the book, but I'm excited for Kieron Gillen's run. Grade: A

Batman: The Widening Gyre #2 of 6: Yeah, yeah, Kevin Smith rocks. You all are going to read this one no mattter what I say about it. Really a good book though. I love the flashbacks to young Dick Grayson. Grade: A

Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu Super Issue #1 contains three awesome stories and a prose piece. There's something for every action/adventure comic fan here, but I wager most human beings would enjoy getting to see a Kung Fu bad ass do his thang in aviators.

Grade: A

Happy 24 hour comics day, y'all.

an important revelation I missed during my absence from the realms

2009-09-29T17:17:00.002-04:00

John Parker of Comics Alliance explains that Grant Morrison, like Brainiac, operates through a series of robotic surrogates:

Deep within the heart of the Andes, the One True Grant Morrison lies dormant in his cocoon, sustained intravenously by wheat germ and LSD, his mind fed a constant stream of Boing Boing updates, "Wired" news, and "Fortean Times." Mr. Morrison grows tired of his surrogate models after a while, and trades them in for new versions. He as previously enjoyed Arty Goth, Anarchist Fop, and Transcendental Businessman. On December 12, 2011, the One True Grant Morrison will arise from his enlightened slumber and shine the bright light of his wisdom upon all the world. And we, as one people, one species, one world, will have absolutely no idea what he's saying. "S'grate, iyer conshusnuss is wonrful, m'tellin ya."

A bio-comic about Trotsky!

2009-09-29T11:05:00.007-04:00

For me, the comedic value of early twentieth century Communist leader Leon Trotsky is at least equal to that of Cobra Commander or Destro. Any man whose followers still stalk the street corners of major cities in shabby clothing trying to sell newspapers with week old news even when ~~he was violently murdered with an ice axe~~ he passed away the better part of a century ago must have been doing something right.

The man knew how to put words together:

A sledgehammer breaks glass but forges steel.

And

The road to socialism lies through a period of the highest possible intensification of the principle of the state … Just as a lamp, before going out, shoots up in a brilliant flame, so the state, before disappearing, assumes the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the most ruthless form of state, which embraces the life of the citizens authoritatively in every direction...

Inspiring, no? I just want to be forged into steel and have my life embraced authoratively just thinking about him.

That's why I was excited to discover this in the solicits for comics and graphic novels that are coming out tomorrow:

Trotsky was a hero to some, a ruthless demon to others. To Stalin, he was such a threat that he warranted murder by pickaxe. Renowned comic artist Rick Geary uses his distinct style to depict the stark reality of the man and his times. Trotsky's life becomes a guide to the creation of the Soviet Union, the horrors of World War I, and the establishment of international communism. Ranging from his boyhood in the Ukraine to his conflict with Stalin and his romance with Frida Kahlo, Trotsky is a stunning look at one of the 20th Century's most important figures.

If it's half as good as Catch-22's bio-skapera Permanent Revolution (see below), it'll be well worth your 17 bucks.

Unrelated but awesome

2009-09-24T13:48:00.001-04:00

I found this great grafitti-esque animation installation on youtube that you need to see:

Back w a Recommendation

2009-09-24T11:07:00.003-04:00

Thanks for bearing with me for the past couple weeks folks. I've been busy and washed out with some really nasty family stuff.

But I'm back now! And refreshed-ish. I'll have a really post up hopefully later today (if not tomorrow), but until then I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone that the re-released trade of Icon: A Hero's Welcome hits shelves next Wednesday Sept. 30th for $19.99. No excuses, go out and snap it up, because this book is a bargain at any price. This reviewer agrees with me:

For those who love well-written, finely illustrated comics, this graphic novelrepresents the best in the field. For those who have yearned for a more equitable cultural representation in the arena of superheroics, this title and its ever-evolving storyline has been a major breakthrough since its debut in 1993. Bold and engaging, the tale comes on strong with satirical bite, and penetrating insights rarely, if ever, seen on a comic page. Highly unique and very familiar, the adventures of Icon, a proverbial brother from another planet, and The Rocket, a sharp sister from the poor side of town, have captured the imagination of the reading public, winning the plaudits of the most creative talents in the business.

...

2009-09-14T13:32:00.004-04:00

Hey all,

Due to some personal/family stuff, I'm going to be taking a week long hiatus from the blog.

I'll talk to you all on Monday.

Best,

Will

More love for the Winehouse (Songs your Dad might like?)

2009-09-14T00:32:00.010-04:00

Came home late the other night and found my father begging me to watch this concert:

Live in London. This one is also great as well. Embeding disabled. Lame! I love her backup singers/dancers.

Everyone should have a little bit of a fierce Amy Winehouse inside of them. I long to have even some of the ballsy freedom that just melts right off of her. (Only without the drug problems.) Her confidence could make you weak. And that hair. Oh baby. I mean, she is tanqueray.

and another totally old news song I've been loving lately? is here. It makes me want to know how to bellydance.

Remembering Two 9/11s

2009-09-11T13:20:00.002-04:00

Thanks to the events on this day eight years ago, 9/11 will always be a significant day in American history. It was the first attack on American soil by a non-domestic threat since Pearl Harbor and the Neocons used it as license to ensnare us in two wars and rough ride over our civil liberties. That's a pretty bad day from my perspective.

Unfortunately, there's another 9/11 in our history that we don't think about but need to. Paul Cantor writes:

On September 11, 1973 a military coup d'état supported by the administration of President Richard M. Nixon in the United States put an end to the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile. After the coup Nixon supported both diplomatically and economically the military Junta that seized power. The junta, led by Augusto Pinochet, arrested, tortured and murdered thousands of Allende's supporters.

Americans will always remember the events of 9/11/2001. Chileans are haunted by the events of 9/11/1973. Maybe since we're the most powerful country in the world and an American government was so strongly tied to what happened in Chile, we should also remember the pain of Chileans on this day.

in which I finally chime in on the Disney acquisition of Marvel

2009-09-10T16:48:00.000-04:00

I haven't been able to pick up my comics yet today, because I've been at work. I couldn't really bring myself to write about anything, when it occurred that I ought to put in my two cents on Disney/Marvel.

You all know the big deets at this point: Disney and Marvel announced the Mouse's intention to acquire Marvel for around 4 billion dollars.

What's more interesting is the conversation about it that's taken place since. I think the perception I'm seeing online and hearing in conversations with my friends that this will some how effect Marvel's comics editorially is pretty unfounded. Disney is in the business of making cash money, not in the business of making everything more like Hanna Montana. (although I have enjoyed Stephen Wacker's jokes on Twitter about how he now only has four fingers and that they're changing Deadpool's name to Alivepool). The idea that Marvel will now market to women and girls more effectively is frankly silly. Furthermore, the online fan hysteria has been particularly illuminating as to how reactionary we are as comics-people-on-the-Internet. Newsarama's super-unscientific poll shows that, as of the writing of this post, 39% of their respondents, a plurality, think the merger won't be good for Marvel (with 34% "mixed reaction" & 27% positive or very positive). As a group of humans, we just kneejerk hate change. Remember how everyone tore up Mark Waid when he gave Wally and Linda kids?

I look at the acquisition from two perspectives. One as someone who is ideologically opposed to the kind of corporate media concentration that characterizes the early 21st century and who thinks Wall St. is destroying the world. And two as someone who likes to continue reading new Marvel comics every week.

It's really clear what has motivated this merger: cash money. Disney wants to add Marvel's characters to their already impressive stable and the owners of Marvel want to make a hell of a lot money and get nice, comfortable places at the table as shareholders in the Disney empire. Isaac Perlmutter, the current CEO of Marvel, will be walking away from the deal with $4.3 million in cash and status as Disney's second largest stockholder. That's a gross amount of money and power. It's really bad for things like participatory democracy and meaningful public discourse to have all the media be produced and controlled by a handful of powerful, more-or-less unregulated multinationals. I'm really against that. But that's daily life in the mean world of corporate capitalism. Power and resources are distributed in ways that are unfair and undemocratic. So that's my two cents on it from that perspective, keeping in mind that in the scheme of global capital, comic books are kind of small potatoes.

As someone who likes Marvel comics... well, there's no reason to believe that this will alter the content (for good or ill) of my funny books, so I mostly, um, don't care. And like jokes about about Alivepool.

I'd be interested in learning about how this might affect the pay rates and working conditions for those working in the industry, but that's not the kind of journalism one would expect from Newsarama now is it?

Your Brain on Latino Comics!

2009-09-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

This book looks cool:

In Your Brain on Latino Comics: From Gus Arriola to Los Bros Hernandez, Frederick Luis Aldama examines the ways in which Latino author-artists contributed to the reemergence of the comic-book industry following the restrictive 1950s, when it was rare for Latinos to be represented by anyone other than a heavily accented caricature. Latino comic-book auteurs, many of whom started their careers in the alternative and underground comics of the 1980s, have developed psychologically complex characters who have smashed Latino and other stereotypes, “radically extended[ing] the alternative-comic-book storytelling mode in various ways while they detail the everyday firmly located within a larger society.”

(h/t Rich Watson at PopCultureShock)

I like academic prose about comics at least as much (probably more) than I like comics themselves. This and Mike Madrid's The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines are totally on my pull list, next time I go to the online book store!

Why?

2009-09-08T00:22:00.006-04:00

I know it is a monday night and I forgot all about our Sunday Afternoon Jams. It has been a busy weekend.

So Monday Evening/Tuesday Morning Jams!

You should become best friends with these two songs. I know I have.
I'm sorry that they aren't videos, just audio over a picture.

Why- Good Friday

Why- Fatalist Palmistry

They are so good, the album these songs are off of, Alopeica, has quickly become one of my favorites. 100% required on any car trip, no matter the length.

Comics Round Up: Supergirl, go on brush your shoulders off

2009-09-07T18:55:00.003-04:00

I know I was hating on Guedes' Supergirl art week before last, but in part of the cover of last week's Supergirl Annual #1 she looks like she's about to make it rain in the Super-Club. Which is funny, because she's pretty much the Peter Parker of the DCU. In the main story of the annual by Sterling Gates she saves a bunch of people from super-bank robbers, but she still feels bad and has to be told by Lana Lang that its good that she's Supergirl. As promised on the cover, the back-up features the origin of Superwoman. It seems like we haven't heard the last from her after all. Maybe once she comes back, Lois Lane will stop being such a yatch to Kara all the time.

Grade: A

Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth #1: I love that Vertigo starts every new series with a 1 dollar first issue. It makes trying out a new book feel like less of a risk. This comic is really cute and features a lonely post-apocalyptic deer boy. There are a lot of precious panels like this one:

The deer boy is so precious and twee. I'll read it for a while anyway.

Grade: A

(For more info on the work of Jeff Lemire, check out this interview with him on Canada's finest comics blog Living Between Wednesdays)

Black Panther #8: Hey! New writer Jonathan Marberry is actually injecting some life into this series. It's like, kind of good now. Yes! Go Marvel! This issue started to flesh out Shuri's supporting cast. It was pretty Batmanly in that it involved superheroic breaking and entering and cool gadgets which is cool cause my Batman titles don't feel very Batmanly for whatever reason. It feels good to be enjoying this series again instead reading it of out of weird allegiance to the property. That being said, Shuri's anatomy is still weird--a woman that skinny shouldn't have boobs so big.

Grade: A-

Immortal Weapons #2 of 5 feat. the Bride of Nine Spiders: This tale by Mike Bunn was essentially a really cool horror comic. An old lady hires some professional thieves to steal a singing spider that used to belong to the Bride from some young rich guy who was experimenting on it in order to capture the Bride. I won't spoil it other than to say you don't actually see much of the Bride of Nine Spiders through out the text and that this is definitely a cool thing. This was a very different take on the Immortal Weapons than Jason Aaron's issue about Fat Cobra. The back-up about Iron Fist and his black Kung Fu students in Harlem is fun I guess, but it didn't really have me on the edge of my seat or anything.

Grade: A

Chew #4 (Taster's Choice pt. 4 of 5): This story-arc just got a lot weirder. Tony and his partner travel to an observatory in the arctic circle to uncover sketchy details around the death of a powerful U.S. senator. Weird things happen. There are consequences. Layman and Guillory have left a lot of potential threads that could be tied together if the next issue is going to cleanly resolve everything that's gone down in the first story-arc so far--given it's an on-going so they don't have to resolve most of it, if they don't see fit to. Anyway, it was cool, but I'm really curious about where this series is going.

Grade: A

Cable #18: I like to believe I have somewhat good taste when it comes to comics, but that I'm THIS into this series about Cable makes me question myself. That being said, I can't help but recommend this comic and declare that it is the shiz. It's one of the most dynamic series I've ever read. Each issue manages to surprise and entertain while moving along the on-going plot and developing the characters.

Fan speculation is dangerous and stuff, but I think Bishop may be turning little Hope into the genocidal killer he's afraid of by pursuing her through timestream the way he is. Waka waka. I hope not though (no pun intended), because I really like her and all the other mainstays, insofar as anyone but her and Cable last for more than a couple issues.

Grade: Yeah, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna drop the A+ on Cable

Irredeemable #6: I still think this series is really good in general and I love Mark Waid's JLA stand-in team The Paradigm. I just really don't see where he can go with it and I hope he hasn't written himself into a corner. I should have more faith. He is Mark Waid after all.

There's some creepy images of children's skeletons in this issue and it seems like we're on the verge of learning something new about the Plutonian's origin, so I guess that's cool.

Still I have to go with Grade: B+. A respectable showing for sure.

Luke Cage: Noir #2 of 4: Who could've predicted that Luke Cage of all people was going to get the rap for a crime he didn't commit? Martinbrough's art remains really solid and I still love era stuff. The plot's just kind of swirly for lack of a better term. And this is pretty fanboyish, but I have problems believing that Tombstone is a tough as Luke Cage. I know, it's a comic book, but still.

Grade: B+

Okay, here it is THE BEST BOOK FROM LAST WEEK

Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire #2 of 6: I don't know what Jason Aaron did to make himself bad ass enough to write like this, but I bet the process was super extreme and would make a really biopic--like much cooler than Rocky IV. This issue was mostly getting all the moving parts into place for the miniseries, but Aaron still managed to do it in an all star bad ass way. Namely, he had Danny Ketch seek out a dude with a portal to Hell in his belly and demons for arms as part of moving the plot along. Ketch finds the man stooped over his breakfast cereal having been beaten up by his own freakish gremlin-like hands.

It takes a very special bad ass to imagine something this hardcore. Roland Boschi should be thankful that he got to draw that.

Grade: A+

Alright, that's all I got for ye. And remember, today (Monday) is a federal holiday, so you're comics don't come out till Thursday this week.

Peace.

Lazy Linkblogging Labor Day

2009-09-07T16:48:00.007-04:00

1. The BBC highlights the 99, Islamic superheroes created by a Kuwaiti psychologist, Dr. Naif al-Mutawa. He explains his reason for creating them in this letter to his children:

So, at the age of 32, I uncapped my pen to create a concept that could be popular in the East and the West. I would go back to the very sources from which others took violent and hateful messages and offer messages of tolerance and peace in their place. I would give my heroes a Trojan horse in the form of THE 99. Islam was my Helen. I wanted her back.

THE 99 references the 99 attributes of Allah - generosity, mercy, wisdom and dozens of others not used to describe Islam in the media when you were growing up. But if I am successful, by the time you read this, you will not believe that such an era could have ever existed.

(h/t Hillary Taylor)

I'm finding some stray issues on Amazon and the 99 website claims you can purchase and download them as e-comics, but it seems hard to navigate. Anyone know where you can reliably find this stuff stateside?

2. There's a piece on the 40 Worst Rob Liefield Drawings up on Progressiveboink. This is of particular interest to me, because he drew a lot of X-Force back in the day and as my recurring readers already know, Domino (below) is my baby's mama.

Check out #34 on the list

(EDIT: I keep fixing this broken picture and it keeps breaking again. Follow this link.)

As we know from LIVING ON THE PLANET EARTH, water is varying shades of green, opaque, and gives off swirling plumes of smoke when heated. But some of those smoke plumes are coming from off screen, so maybe there are a bunch of humongous bathtubs in the room or maybe someone is throwing decorative curtains.

CABLE GET OUT THE TUB WITH MY WOMAN. SHE'S TOO GOOD FOR YOU!

(h/t Baird Bream)

3. 4thletter!'s podcast is pretty good this week. If you have the gumption and 36 minutes be wowed by David and Esther talking about their favorite Spider-Man and Batman villains and have your mind turned inside out by Esther's 10 minute explanation of Hawkman continuity. Your brain will feel funny afterwards.

4. It's probably lame to linkblog something someone twitpicced, but I can't resist in this instance. Digital Femme's Cheryl Lynn (Twitter here) tweeted this excellent picture of a white woman dressed as Heroes for Hire's Misty Knight in blackface. Cheryl Lynn writes: "But y'know what? She loved Misty so much I couldn't even get mad."

Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex (A Superman related aside)

2009-09-03T23:23:00.013-04:00

This evening i was scouting wikipedia and my college's library for authors I enjoyed from my Science Fiction Literature class last semester.

Of course I looked up Larry Niven because 'Inconstant Moon' was one of my favorite short stories from the semester. (As well as Robert Silverberg's 'Passengers', Theodore Sturgeon's 'A Saucer of Loneliness' and George R. R. Martin's 'Sandkings'. I list them because you should read them if you can.)

and i'm sure you've all read Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex but in case you haven't....

It lists the difficulties Superman would have in procreating with human females.

If this all sounds familiar then you have probably seen Kevin Smith's Mallrats (which is where I first heard of this possible complication), or heard someone make refrence from the essay, since it's pretty well known. Niven also wrote some stuff for Green Lantern if Wikipedia's not mistaken.

Read it if you haven't (it's funny and very short) and go read his short story 'Inconstant Moon' if you can because it's very good. (So much better than the thing I've posted for you, even if it's not related to comics. Sorry, can't find it for you in full text online.)

We now return you to your previously scheduled blog posts.

P.S. Did everyone's Mom love "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" as much as mine did?

The Great Ten and How "We" Talk About Race and "Diversity"

2009-09-03T12:28:00.001-04:00

I'm really looking forward to Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel's forthcoming Great Ten limited series about the state-sponsored team of Chinese "super-functionaries" introduced by Grant Morrison in the pages of 52. I'm a true believer in Morrisonian concepts and love the idea of superheroes in non-American locales. Plus, everyone who reads this blog knows I'm really heavy handed about pushing superheroes of color. I want to start off by saying all that as a way of making it clear that what I'm about to write is not meant as a dis to the concept of the Great Ten or to Tony Bedard--any dude who was an editor on Morrison and Porter's JLA is a-okay in my book.

However, something Bedard said about the Ten in this interview with Newsarama's Vaneta Rogers is a good jumping off point for thinking about problems with how race and diversity are talked about in contemporary North America.

Rogers: When the Great Ten was introduced, there was a stated motivation on both Grant Morrison and DC's part to add diversity to the DCU. . . .[D]o you think there's still a need for that in the DCU?

Bedard: I think it’s good to be mindful of diversity, but if that’s the only reason to create a character, it’s probably not enough to make it succeed. . . .As for the DCU needing that sort of thing, I think all comics universes tend to reflect changes in society at large. As we become more racially diverse as a culture, we’ll see that in our pop culture too. (emphasis mine)

The problem I see here is in how Bedard (and contemporary North American discourse in general) utilizes the word "we" and the word "diversity."

As a pronoun "we" refers back to a specific group of subjects, but too often in discussions about race and the changing nature of North American culture the specific group of subjects to which "we" refers is obfuscated. In Bedard's declaration about "our" culture (bolded above), it is unstated from which "we" he is actually speaking and therefore the culture to which he actually refers must be inferred.

So to which culture is Bedard referring? Is he refering to "our" culture(s) as the entire human family? This has been notably diverse for a number of millenia now, so that wouldn't make sense. And, while I'm no expert on the subject, I don't believe that the cultures that exist in China have been getting more Chinese, requiring a shift to native Chinese superheroes in comic books, when before they had been happily represented by white North Americans. Is he referring to "our" culture(s) as all who dwell within the borders of the continental United States? I'll accept that a lot more Latinos and Asians have come here in the past couple decades, but it's not like black people didn't exist before the Civil Rights Movement. It's not like there weren't very diverse indigenous populations before they were all but wiped out by white settlers. It's not like Chicanos didn't inhabit the American West before "the bordered crossed them" so to speak.

What most people participating in contemporary North American discourse around such matters mean when they're referring to "our" culture or "culture" without any descriptors is actually white North American culture or in this instance commercial popular culture primarily produced by and for white U.S. citizens. This can be viewed as especially interesting in this case since Bedard himself is Puerto Rican. This highlights the hegemonic nature of the white "we" as the U.S. "we."

Now let's clarify what is meant by "diversity" in this instance. What most people in contemporary North American discourse mean when they say "diversity" is the rate by which people of color (or their fictional equivalents) exist in settings formerly exclusively reserved for whites. On my nigh monochromatic high school's website it said that our school was "93% white, 7% diversity." While this is poor grammatical use of the word "diversity," it's what people here tend to mean by it. Everybody acclimated to life in contemporary North America knows this but it's not usually articulated as such.

So when Bedard (or most people who would be saying such things) says that "our culture is becoming more diverse" he means there are more people of color in positions that have been reserved solely for whites in the past. Again, most people in North America are acculturated enough to know this, but we only ever talk about it in euphemisms. It's always, "We're becoming more diverse," and never "White people are being/have been culturally shamed into being a little less racist." It would be better if an honest conversation about the topic were considered polite.

This also creates the problem of talking about race in North America solely in terms of "diversity." I'm obviously pro-upward mobility for poor and working class people of color and as stated I'm all about superheroes of color. However, framing the conversation about race in these limited terms prevents a thorough-going discussion about institutionalized racial injustice and white supremacy. It's fine for us to be proud of our black President, but we desperately need solutions for unequal access to resources, health care, jobs, and housing, low wages and underemployment, the broken criminal justice system, and the broken immigration system just to name a few North American social travesties that are wrapped up in centuries of racial injustice. Nothing's going to get done about racial injustice and it's consequences until someone forces a mature conversation about race down white America's throat. I'm not saying that a superhero comic is the best place to do this, but as a comic book fan this is the world I address and everything is worth a try.

Sometimes you just have to dance it out.

2009-08-30T23:49:00.008-04:00

Cicada - Psycho Thrills

I want to be a DJ so I can play this song. I want to go out and dance to this.

Just like this:

If you like it you can download the Dyebox Remix here.

Comics Round Up Digest

2009-08-28T20:55:00.003-04:00

I bought a lot of books this week and as a result, I had to spend a long-o time reading them. I'm going to try to avoid reviewing everything I read and give somewhat abbreviated reviews. Let's see if "Wind-Bag Will" can actually accomplish that. I am excluding pictures because I am lazy.

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #3 of 3: Yes oh yes. Kieron Gillen triumphantly ends his miniseries with a beautiful twist of fate that kept the series interesting and Beta Ray Bill pure. Great characterization of Bill and the Silver Surfer, who is so torn and noble in a really compelling way. There was a great set up for the S.W.O.R.D. series Kieron will be writing. I can't wait for Thor, S.W.O.R.D., and Ares.

Detective Comics #856: Trippy art from J.H. Williams III. Katie Kane and Maggie Sawyer dancing in tuxedoes at a GCPD fundraiser. Renee being butch in back up. Need I say more?

Superman #691: Despite my now controversial stand about Guedes' Supergirl looking like a dude wearing a wig, I really liked how the Codename: Patriot crossover turned out. As a side note, I like how in the DC Universe the stand in for Bill Richardson, with Bruce Wayne's crucial support, won the presidential election. I'm glad Ral-Dar doesn't kill the DCU's first Latino president.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen Special #2: Well, that was a dramatic ending.

Fantastic Four #570: The art is poppy and great. I really can't get over how much I love the cover. Hytch's realism looks moribund next to this shit. Hickman and Eaglesham's run seems like it's going to be a fun time. I know multiverse stuff is like trademark DC, but Marvel's multiverse is so much more out of control that really anything could happen in this new story.

Dark X-men The Beginning #3 of 3: Namor and Emma are both so hot. They're even hotter than all of the Archie Comics ladies. Maybe.

Dark Avengers #8 (Utopia pt. 5): I was very pleased with this comic. It seems like I'm going to get the throw down between X-Force and the Dark Avengers that I wanted. And SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER shockingly enough Emma didn't betray Scott after all. Unfortunately, there were no jetpacks.

Citizen Rex #2 of 6: I'm slowly building my indie comics cred, I swear. Anywho this series by Mario & Gilbert Hernandez of Love & Rockets fame is a noirish wonder about robots. It remains really good and continues to get more interesting.

Also really good this week: Kevin Smith's Batman: the Widening Gyre #1 of 6 and Final Crisis Aftermath Ink #4 of 6. They were great, but it's Friday night and I'm too lazy to tell you about them.

Other things on my pull list that I don't regret buying: Buck Rogers #3, X-Force #18, New Mutants #4, New Avengers #56, and Flash Rebirth #4 of 6. Depending on your cup of tea, I'll vouch for any of them.

Looks like I accomplished my cool of putting forward a time efficient, substandard comics review. Good. Now I can go read some Ghost Rider and listen to rap jams.

Anatomy Fail!

2009-08-27T17:37:00.003-04:00

I loved Dale Eaglesham's work in Justice Society and the art in this week's issue of Fantastic Four #570 is solid and has an umph to it that Bryan Hitch's realism didn't, but Mr. Fantastic looks a little awkward in this panel, no?

I never knew Supergirl was a dude in a whig. Guedes' approach in Superman #691 may revolutionize my view of the character.

EDIT: Just to be clear. I'm referring to her face.

Give me Jamal Igle any day.

The Lament of a Latter Day Milestone Fan

2009-08-26T14:58:00.007-04:00

My regular readers (if those exist?) know that I write and think about the properties owned by Milestone Media a lot. For those who don't know, Milestone was/is a black creator owned and controlled comic book company. During their heyday in the 1990s, they published half a dozen series through DC Comics that involved a line of racially diverse superheroes in adventures that were smart and fun. My favorite title from Milestone's he day is Icon (right), a series about a rich conservative black lawyer who is secretly a super-powerful alien that crash landed in the rural South during slavery and his sidekick Rocket who is an intellectually precocious, black teenage mother interested in writing who lives with her mother and grandmother in public housing. Icon was the bomb.com.

This Monday, Rich Watson put an article on PopCultureShock outlining the unfortunate way that DC Comics has treated the Milestone Media characters since they acquired the right to publish stories with them last summer. The long and short of it is that DC came out strong talking about how great all the Milestone characters were but did not follow through on all the plans they supposedly had for all the characters beyond a few stray issues of The Brave and the Bold. Now it's come out that they really have no plans other than including Static, famous for his television series Static Shock, in the Teen Titans. This makes me sad because I really love these characters and DC, the company I cut my teeth on as a fan, is not known for having the most racially diverse line of superheroes.

I guess I should have been a little bit more cynical from the get go. I'm pretty bummed out, because this seemed like the last opportunity to have the Milestone characters living large. I really enjoyed McDuffie's last arc on Justice League where he had a league made up of women and people of color (having been abandoned by its half-cocked white male members for Hal Jordan's "preemptive justice"-oriented team) team up with Milestone heroes. I haven't seen any official notice of cancellation for the two part prestige format Milestone Forever story McDuffie keeps promising on his message boards, but I'm afraid that the aforementioned Justice League story will be last great Milestone story that isn't just about Static. I hope I'm wrong.

Guest Commentator on Eminem/Punisher

2009-08-26T09:50:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I was hunting around Marvel's website to find out when Kieron Gillen's new titles will be coming out when I noticed an ad for this.

It has been released as a digital comic only available only Marvel's website and I don't want to start trifling with that stuff so I decided to give it a pass--as enticing as a team up between Punisher and Slim Shady may sound. I did, however, email my friend Ben who is studying in India for the rest of the year. He is a big Punisher fan and could not resist the pull because he has been away from comics for some months now. Here is his review:

i read it. couldn't have been worse.

There you have it folks. Straight from the keyboard of an American would-be journalist in India. Eminem/Punisher sucks.

Superhero joint from Planet Asia

2009-08-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

(h/t Black SuperHero Blog)

A very tardy Comics Round Up

2009-08-24T20:53:00.002-04:00

I have been a naughty, naughty blogger. It may be too late for anyone on the Internet to care what happened in last week's comics, but let's get it on(!!!) with some tardy comics reviews anyway.

Let's start with Comics That Kind of Sucked!! It's not often that I read comics that I think kind of suck (possibly because of my poor taste and lack of judgment). Like students at prestigious schools with inflated grades, all the comics on this blog usually take home an A or high B. But this week I had two whole books where I was like, "WHY AM I EVEN BUYING YOU?" Beware, both of these series are likely getting the axe soon.

Zsasz gets GQed and SoG still sucks

Batman: Streets of Gotham #3: This is not Paul Dini's best work with Batman. Suffice to say that he managed to write a story involving Mr. Zsasz getting all GQed that is somehow not the singular best piece of graphic fiction I have ever read. It was kind of fun, but basically poorly written. The Manhunter back up was only a little better which is sad because it featured Manhunter in civvies fighting a woman with no skin. Grade: C

G.I. Joe Origins #6: I was tricked into buying this 'cause I missed the memo that Larry Hama didn't write it. Woe was me when I actually took the time to study the cover the book and noticed Chuck Dixon's name on it. The story is right-wing military masturbation about how stupid liberal idealistic journalists are. When my liberal-hearted journalistic friend Ben someday returns from an exotic Oriental land (hopefully not in a pinebox), I will gift it to him. I like cool and silly G.I. Joe, not right-wing ideologue G.I. Joe. Grade: C- (However, I do take some significant amount of amusement from this parody of the cover.)

NOW! on to the good stuff!

Dark Reign Mr. Negative #3 of 3: All-in-all I've been impressed with this series and would recommend the trade paperback to fans of Amazing Spider-Man. Fred Van Lente is a good Spidey author and Mr. Negative shows his gold as one of the coolest Spidey villains around today with his super non-standard dual identity. I like that Martin Li's philanthropy isn't a cover for Mr. Negative's evil, but is part of a philosophy of balance. That's a little bit more intellectually heavy than the Shocker being like, "I'm the Shocker! I shock people for money!" That being said, Gugliotta's art left a little to be desired in this issue and somehow the story arc's wrap up was kind of "meh." I give this issue a B, but the overall series an A-.

Blackest Night Superman #1 of 3: Won't dwell on this, other than to say that bringing back Zor-El as a Black Lantern so soon seems a little bit in bad taste and that having Superman back on Earth to fight Black Lantern Superman of Earth-2 feels a little canned. Let's just say I expected it all to be a lot more hardcore somehow. I'm withholding judgment for now and plan on continuing to read the series because it features Superman and Superboy. Yes, that makes me a dork.

Supergirl #44 (pt. 3 of Codename: Patriot) on the other hand rocked completely. We finally learned that the tattoo face lady from Project 7734 is named Mirabai. And there was an awesome panel of Mon-El hovering over Hollywood being the twee-est superhero on record:

SUPERMAN SO GOOD. Grade: A.

AND NOW the really good stuff. These two were the best books I picked up this week.

The Brave and The Bold #26 starring Xombi and the Spectre. This was tale crafted by John Rozum and beautiful put down on paper by Scott Hampton was vintage Milestone gold. The highest praise I can heap on this comic is that it made feel like I was reading a story with a big Milestone "M" on the cover published in 1996. A few weeks back I made a promise to myself that I would read all the back issues of Xombi I had kicking around my harddrive in preparation for this issue. Given my absence from the blogosphere it should go without saying that work, friends, and Civ 3 forced me to break this promise. But this book put that back on my to-do list. I demand you go to your nearest comics vendor and purchase this issue. It's a one shot and you can probably spare three dollars. You have no excuses. Grade: A+

Superman Annual #14: This book followed the plot line from the last issue of Superman where Mon-El was given red crystals containing the history of the planet Daxam. After a soulful conversation with his favorite purveyor of hot cocoa, a reluctant Mon-El sits down with the crystals and learns the long obscured history of his people. This one is an awe-inspiring, sci-fi tearjerker--even Mon-El agrees (see below). Any reservations I have about James Robinson's work on BN: Superman were totally made up for by this annual. If you are reading the Superman family and not buying the annuals, you are missing out on the full effect. Grade: A+

That's all, folks!

Hello current radio Pop music

2009-08-23T23:02:00.004-04:00

Will just turned me onto this song.

Yesssssssss.

I love that cardigan she's rocking in the first scene. Heck yes.

Also, when did Kelly get all cute and chunky like that? (Well, chunky for someone who is the media? Maybe it's just the way her hair is put up... anyway.)
Me-ow baby doll!

Is now the time I get back into what they're actually playing on the radio instead of being another hipster snob? Who knows?

Busy Week at Work!

2009-08-21T21:29:00.004-04:00

It's 9:30 and I'm just now leaving the office. I'm bushed and have an early morning tomorrow and a going away party for friends tomorrow night.

I won't be able to do this week's Comics Round Up till Sunday probably, but rest assured, it is a-comin'. You don't think an issue of The Brave and the Bold starring a Milestone character and the black Spectre could come out without my commentary, did you?

In the meantime, if you're craving intelligent comic book commentary, I would recommend Inkpot Award winner and comics mastermind Dwayne McDuffie's website and message boards as well as comics news and commentary site PopCultureShock.

Peace in the Middle East, y'all.

Chugga Chugga Chew Chew

2009-08-20T11:58:00.002-04:00

Last week, I promised a review of Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory, now in its third issue from Image. In the time since then I've been rolling around Kentucky strapped in a backseat next to a ten year old tyrant with AD/HD (it runs in the fam) interested only drinking too much Coca-Cola and fixating his gaze on a never-ending datafeed comprised of Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. It was good to have the time off work, but now its good to be back. I was busy yesterday running errands and doing tomfoolery on the Internet, so this review didn't happen, but enough excuses. Let's get down to biznazz.

Everyone on the Internet is right. Chew is really good. It's got everything a book needs for indie comic glory: an off-the-wall concept, solid writing, and an art style that really captures what the story is about.

The book's star is Tony Chu, a police detective who is cibopathic, meaning "he can take a bite of an apple, and get a feeling in his head about what tree it grew from, what pesticides were used on the crop, and when it was harvested. . .or he could eat a hamburger, and flash onto something else entirely." He lives in a not-too-far-in-the-future America where the FDA has used the Avian Flu scare to seize power and outlaw chicken. When they discover Tony's power, he is recruited as a very special agent. The result is a funny and cartoonesque, but somehow still serious police procedural drama.

I recommend this comic for anyone who likes a good story, but quirky food-loving folks in their late teens and early twenties who are obsessed with the Food Network before their time will probably get an even bigger kick out of it. Layman and Guillory seem to be creating a universe with all sorts of food-based special abilities. Along with the cibopathic Chu, the book has also introduced a food columnist who is a saboscrivner, meaning she has the ability to describe food in such detail that it makes one feel like one is actually eating it. The effect is quirky and fun. It'll be interesting to see what kind of staying power the series has.

Another thing I like about the series is that in written material in the back of the comics, John Layman has already drawn a line in the sand that Tony Chu is Asian American and that he will never sign off on a movie that doesn't portray him as such. Now, I doubt this concept would work well on the big screen in live action, but it's cool to see a fantasy creator take a stand. Especially in light of The Last Airbender, Dragon Ball Evolution, and The Legend of Chun-Li movie--all of which take Asian characters from other media and make them white. The pigeonholing of Asians in or more often their erasure from popular culture narrative is a trend that's not okay and this book is doing its small part for anti-racism.

I look forward to issue 4.

Grade: A

Short Hiatus

2009-08-16T19:48:00.002-04:00

Surprise change of plans: here in half an hour or so I'm headed to Greensburg, KY, to hang out with my aunt and 9 year old cousin who have come up from Texas. I still have my BlackBerry, but I'll be faraway from the conventional Internet. Maybe my cobloggers will pick up the slack, maybe not. In the meantime, I want to share something I just learned about Devastator in Revenge of the Fallen from Wikipedia:

A controversial scene in the movie involves Devastator climbing up a pyramid, with two wrecking balls dangling from his crotch (despite the fact that none of the construction vehicles forming Devastator are wrecking cranes). This has been confirmed by director Michael Bay to be his testicles [3].

Michael Bay. *Places face in hand* Ah, well...

See you Wednesday, wrecking ball testicles swinging!

Comics Round Up: Blackest Night #2 rocks my socks

2009-08-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

Besides being a week of mainstream superhype around Blackest Night/Utopia/Codename: Patriot (all of which are cool, btw), it was a good week for me, because I got to see both of my comic book babymammas. Domino, the greatest thing to come out of the 1990s after Icon and Rocket, Kingdom Come and Grant Morrison's run on JLA, had a bit role in Uncanny X-Men #514 and Arisia punched a Daxamite for being a racist bastard in Green Lantern Corps#39. Yeah, it was hot.

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase and review Blackest Night #2 first, because that's what everyone wants to hear about anyway.

In short, I love it. I haven't read anything this epic since Infinite Crisis. This sort of story is exactly why I read DC Comics. The Black Lanterns represent just the sort of threat to existence that only a team-up of the World's Greatest Heroes could stop. Grant Morrison's run on JLA got me into this sort of story and I haven't stopped craving stories like this one ever since. Barry and Hal continue to battle Black Lantern J'onn J'onnz. Tempest and Mera battle Black Lantern Aquaman. Through out the story Johns continues to up the ante. I can't wait for next month. Grade: A+*

*(they need to invent a higher grade for me to give this story)

And while we're on the subject, let's talk about Green Lantern Corps #39. Tomasi and Gleason are my guys and I really love this title, but this issue could have been a little more exciting. It's not like nothing happens. There's the above panel of Arisia punching that dude. And there's a cool reveal about Kyle. Not to mention that some pretty big name Green Lanterns get reanimated (though not visually depicted). I don't know, something's still missing. I guess I'm just holding out for more Black Lantern Ch'p. Grade: B+

Cable #17: Can we talk about how much I love Cable? Nothing phases this guy. He's timeslid into a post-apocalyptic future to protect a young child from Bishop using a broken time machine that can't go backwards. They've reached the point where timesliding further forward would be like "timesliding into a brick wall" and he's all No problem, surrogate daughter, we'll just go to space with these strangers in a cobbled together craft of questionable structural integrity. This series is impossibly cool in a Mad Max sort of way and I recommend it to anyone who likes things that are nuts and hardcore. The first and second trades are available from Barnes & Noble. Grade: A

Uncanny X-Men #514 (Utopia pt. 4): Here's all I'm gonna say. The plot to this crossover just keeps getting more and more complex and there's only two issues left. Those are either going to be to really amazing issues chalked full of action and intrigue or this series is going to be kind of a let down. As a customer, I will be satisfied as long as I get to see X-Force fight somebody but I get I the sense that for this series to breath it should've been longer. I'm really hopeful that the secret team that Scott has prepared to fight the Dark Avengers is X-Force.

In this issue there's some really good characterization of Mimic and Weapon Omega. Also, is that sexual tension I sense between Emma Frost and Namor? (Or does everyone just have sexual tension with Namor?) Anywho, I'm withholding judgement on grading this issue till the series is done.

Amazing Spider-Man #602: It's fun. Spider-Man and Fred Van Lente are always fun. Chameleon is in it. Peter gets a job at the mayor's office. Harry is living in his coffee shop. Just do yourself a favor and start reading Amazing Spider-Man. You really can't go wrong unless there's a Dark Reign tie-in.

Adventure Comics #1: Move over Amazing Spider-Man because this is now officially my favorite on-going (unless it starts to suck and I change my mind). This issue begins to set up Connor's new life in Smallville and has a lot of pathos with scenes of him staring out over endless wheatfield's etc. Francis Manapul's art is just too much. It breaks my little heart:

I could just die, really. The Legion back-up weren't half bad neither. Seems like Starman is getting sicker. Grade: A+

Action Comics #860 (Codename: Patriot pt. 2): Okay... SPOILER ALERT, but I can't resist, because I'm a tremendous softy and it's Saturday so what are you doing reading this blog if you haven't picked up your comics yet...

Oo la la
The crossover is still getting ramping up, but I get the sense that it's going to read really awesome story-arc. Grade: A

Also, I really want to know who this woman from Project 4377 with the tattoos is (below). She's a total BAMF.

2009 Superman Secret Files: Despite the hefty five dollar cover price, this is a really fun buy. There's three good little back-up length stories about characters from across the Superverse, good background material, a short, whiney meditation on Pete Ross, and cool maps and diagrams. My only complaint is that they didn't have Bios on Superwoman (R.I.P.) or Steel (which I whined about on my Twitter). The Mon-El/Billi Harper story is so fun. I hope those two end up sucking face. It amazes me that James Robinson can write such cute things and then tweet stuff like:

Boy, what a night. Crazy. Got into a fight, but not too bad. Almost run over by a nutjob but wasn't. Got home okay.

Grade: A

Anyway, have a good Saturday night. Hopefully, I'll see y'all on Monday with a review of Chew.

Thunderbolt, race and secret identity

2009-08-14T21:17:00.001-04:00

When I was reading Essential Luke Cage, Power Man vol. 2 the other night this panel from Steel #25 came to mind. The woman panel is a (white) police detective who Weezie Simonson had been building into a possible love interest for Steel over the past 25 issues. Fortunately, this particular plot was never allowed to go anywhere (thank Christopher Priest), but the narrative concept is somewhat enticing. Now, I question this woman's deductive faculties as when he's Steel, John Henry Irons wears a mask that seems either a) form fitting or b) crafted to look phenotypically African, but the idea of a non-white superhero who nobody knew wasn't white is an interesting one. Enter: Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt first appears in Luke Cage, Power Man #41. He's a dude who was struck by lightning and then exposed to a sci-fi deus ex machina and came out with superspeed. (Now... who else can I think of with that origin?) He and Luke enter into a ~~bromance~~ team-up against the villainous Goldbug in standard Marvel fashion after getting into a fight when each believed the other to be a villain. Now you'll notice that Thunderbolt's face is completely covered. You don't get a gander at him without the mask until the next issue. Until that point in the narrative, I had just assumed he was a white dude. It wasn't until he had completed his first adventure with Luke Cage and imprinted on my mind as a white dude that I learned that he was black. My reaction to this was not negative like or as "How could he never have told me..." as the policewoman at the top of this post, but I was thrown for a loop for a couple reasons.

First of all: they're almost all white dudes. You don't see Peter Parker's face on the cover of Spider-Man's first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 but because of a combination of factors including who the dudes were that were making the comics and white racial hegemony over North American society meant you knew that underneath the mask, Spidey was a white dude.

Next there is Thunderbolt's ideology and modus operandi as a superhero (see above). While Black Panther, Luke Cage, and Black Lightning all avenged a crime in the process of becoming a superhero this is true of many superheroes in general. Like Spider-Man, the crimes at the center of their origins didn't leave them with a mad on for hurting people. On the other hand, Thunderbolt responds to his brother's death more like the white seventies vigilante crowd (e.g., Punisher, Wolverine, etc.). You'll note that he disfigures criminals he apprehends with little Harry Potter scars so he can know to kill them if he ever sees them again. Imagine what Garth Ennis would do with this guy.

Now, I know you might be thinking War Machine has the black superhero on a bloody, righteous rampage market cornered right now, but he's rolling in an international setting. Plus everyone knows Rhodey is black. One could put a revamped but equally (or possibly more) violent Thunderbolt in a contemporary "urban" setting. Have him talk differently from the rest of the folks living there--either like a machine or like he's white or something--to disguise his identity. Have some community organizer who is childhood best friends with his secret identity come after him for beating up a lot of poor black and brown people (like in that issue of Icon). And you might have yourself a story there.

Given such a series could easily turn into a disaster, which is why I wouldn't trust myself and the rest of White America to write it. But I think it could make for an interesting concept. Thoughts?

Marvel Divas: actually really good

2009-08-13T13:55:00.001-04:00

This week Marvel Divas #2 of 4 came out and I have to hand it to writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, artist Tonci Zonjic, and the whole the rest of the creative team as well as the folks in corporate who made it happen. I was wrong. The current Marvel Divas miniseries--despite the red flag-raising boob-anorexia-tastic cover of issue #1--is more than just sexist drivel and actually really good. This review should come with a tiny SPOILER ALERT but not a very big one.

Here's the skinny. While it's been pitched as Sex in the City set in the Marvel Universe, I think that's a lazy description. It takes second or third tier Marvel superheroes Firestar, Hellcat, Photon (aka the black Captain Marvel), and the Black Cat and sets them up as a clique of friends involved in a 4-way "ladymance" (or whatever the female equivalent of bromance is). They sip martinis and say caddy things about first tier lady superheroes like She-Hulk and Emma Frost. It is not to my credit that this series is different from most of the media I consume on a regular basis in that it involves multiple women talking to each other about something other than a dude. Not that there aren't dudes, but there's other stuff too! What I'm trying to get at here is that there's just not enough lady-centric superhero stuff out there (or at least I'm not reading enough of it if there is). Marvel really needs to bring back that Colleen Wing and Misty Knight series. But with less boob windows. I really just can't take those seriously.

Brother/Doctor Voodoo continues with his wholly
inappropriate notions about human courtship in Marvel Divas #2.

Anyway...while the series contains some light-heartedness like Photon's fumbling romance with Dr. Voodoo (see above) and the aforementioned martini-sipping and caddy superheroine gossip, the crux of the series is around Firestar's diagnosis with breast cancer. The next two issues of the four part series will show us how she and her friends cope with this very real world problem and to what lengths they as a group and individuals will go to make her well. At the end of issue 2, Hellcat's ex-boyfriend Daimon, who Marvel continuityheads will recognize as the son of Satan, and makes her an offer: Firestar's health for Hellcat's immortal soul. Is the life of a friend worth Hellcat's soul? Or will the "Marvel Divas" (really, this posse needs a better name) find another way?

Grade: A

I don't know how hard back issues are too find, but definitely worth picking up once it comes out as a trade.

Things I'm Looking Forward To

2009-08-11T15:44:00.006-04:00

Some Tuesday afternoon ruminations for y'all.

1. This week is going to be a good Superman week. I'll get to read Action Comics and the all-new Adventure Comics by DC Comics' divinely powered scribe Geoff Johns and fun artist Francis Manapul. I'm really excited about the former, because Manapul's art looks perfect for the series which seems to mix a very quaint Americana take on Superboy with Legion of Superheroes goodness. As of tomorrow, I will officially be buying 5 Superman family titles a month.

2. Despite myself, I'm really eager to pick up Marvel Divas #2 tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised by the first issue. If you can get past the stupid title and TNA cover art, I like it because its just ladies hanging out. As I've said, I really wish there were a companion title called Marvel Bromance that was just Marvel bros chillaxing between fights with Norman Osborn and Kang. It's probably a good thing that some editor realized that Marvel Bromance was a stupid name for their forthcoming hardcover of male-oriented team-ups, but I really want a Marvel Divas style title about the merry men of Marvel and Bromance seems to be the perfect title. There could even be a crossover about relationship drama between Misty Knight and Iron Fist.

3. This forth-coming American Gothic WildStorm series by Kurt Busiek looks cool. So does this Batman/Doc Savage ~~bromance~~ team-up. The latter shall be pulpy and involve lighter-than-aircraft. Oh yes.

4. Spider-Man and Superman are rocking my world right now, but I'm pretty disappointed by Batman Reborn. I'm reading three of the titles, but the only one I can get into is Detective Comics featuring Batwoman which seems pretty unrelated to the rest. The art in that book will make the hardcover an excellent gift for a friend or co-worker when it comes out.

That's all. Ciao for now.

I approve of G.I. Joe

2009-08-10T20:07:00.010-04:00

Alright, so I know everyone's been like, "Man, G.I. Joe is gonna suck." Or at least that was my vibe. When telling most of my friends I was going to see it there was either palpable judgment or a sense of light hearted amusement that I would go see this thing. Given, most of my friends don't understand that G.I. Joe rules.

I have to admit I was somewhat skeptical myself. A week ago I read somewhere or other that it was intended for "military, blue collar, and red state audiences." Now, as someone who used to work for a blue collar union and who lives in a town with a large military base in a red state, I still get suspicious when things (e.g. theories about Obama not being born in the United States) are supposed to be targetted at these groups of people. Plus Hasbro live action movies don't exactly have the best track record. The first Transformers was a long military recruitment add cum GM commercial. This last film was racist and sexist.

However, in reality, the movie was awesome. Or at least cheesy summer fun movie awesome. And the politics of the movie were actually refreshing compared to Revenge of the Fallen (and most action-type military movies, unfortunately). Now, I don't know how Hasbro did this, but they managed to put out a movie about giant robots from space that turn into cars whose civilization was destroyed in a millenia-spanning interstellar war that is more weirdly valorizing of war and the army than their property that is actually about human soldiers battling "an evil terrorist organization" in a conflict in which they seemingly never get hurt during combat. So, that was cool.

While the relative absence of ridiculous and atrocious racism in the film was nice, I enjoyed it because it was a geeky summer action that really captured the spirit of a mythos I'm fond of. The characters are generally very GI Joe-y and cool. And there's lots of sweet Joe vehicle action stuff. The climax of the film involves a Star Wars-style epic ship-to-ship battle with the catch that it's submarines underwater. The Gungans wish they were in this movie and not Phantom Menace.

However, my favorite part of the movie was Byung-Hun Lee's portrayal of the villainous ninja Storm Shadow, a beloved classic G.I. Joe character.

He was a murder machine and suave bad ass. I like him in the white dress suit even more. There's this awesome scene where he and the Baroness walking into an office building dressed like that and uses shiruken to kill 4 security guards like it weren't no thang. The flashbacks with him and Snake Eyes as children are hokey but very '70s and that goes along way with me.

There were also, as one should expect, some less than good the movie. The plot hinged largely on weird interpersonal and family drama as well as inconsistent characterization. Also, not to be an asshole fan, but I really prefer the Baroness to talk in a non-descript foreign accent and as someone who has eyes I take issue with Snake Eye's anatomical lip mold on his mask--it looks just like this toy in the movie too.

So go see G.I. Joe if you're a geek. It's good, but kind of stupid.

It doesn't have to be beautiful by Snow Club

2009-08-10T00:07:00.003-04:00

Little poppy twee tune for your enjoyment!

Why Irredeemable? Why Now?

2009-08-07T16:23:00.003-04:00

Because BOOM! Studios super-incentivized picking up what folks all over the Internet are calling their sleeper hit. This week BOOM! shipped a trade collecting the first four issues of Mark Waid's series about a Superman analogue who flips and becomes the world's greatest super villain for a mere $9.99 as well as courageously knocking down the cover price of this week's Irredeemable #5 to $.99. I was already planning on spending too much on comics this week because Rachelle at Living Between Wednesdays has been encouraging a Jason Aaron Ghost Rider trade-purchasing habit, but when I saw the deal after realizing it was by Mark "the man who made me a hardcore comics fan" Waid and having Tony from Collectibles, Etc. explain the series premise to me, I couldn't say no.

And I have not been let down! The series is not only an exploration of what could make the world's great hero become the world's greatest villain, but also plays with other popular comics motifs. A favorite of mine is their slightly altered take on a Lois Lane type character. Another comes in this week's issue's exploration of a Luke Cage/Black Lightning pastiche. Along with the metacommentary, Irredeemable also delivers good old fashioned superhero action and suspense. It's like one of those DC stories where Superman turns bad only much more rivetting because you know its not a temporary trick. In the words of Lois Lane analogue Alana Patel, "The Plutonian has gone rogue. We're all dead." It's fun yet heavy stuff.

I would suggest this book for folks who are into DC books but aren't usually into independent fair. My week was way spiced up by this title and I bet your's be could too!

Marvel Anime

2009-08-06T23:19:00.010-04:00

So...Have you heard about these?
What do you all think of these?
They're being done by Madhouse, (the offical site in japanese if you are so inclined) the guys who did Trigun and some other anime work (Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits are the only other ones I have seen of their cataloge)

I think the Iron Man one looks pretty cool. I could see the technological aspect of Iron Man being done pretty well in an anime-like style.
(the action begins at :40)
I can't help but be a little excited for this one.

but Wolverine (also starts at :40) well... I dunno. He has a scenster Mullet? He looks so feminine? (I know it's an anime, but he's still WOLVERINE) Although he seems to be fighting crazy japanese folklore demon stuff, which is always fine by my book.
I'd still be super interested in checking it out when it comes out.

It also made me think of Marvel Mangaverse. Back in high school when I had a secret comic problem, I remember buying a couple of issues of it.
I didn't follow it longer because I didn't drive then, and Richmond was also lacking any comic book store at that time.

Did anyone else read those? Maybe it was just me. haha.

John Hughes

2009-08-06T18:01:00.005-04:00

Oh no...

John Hughes died. Bummer.

Let's all take a moment to think about how awesome Ferris Bueller and Sixteen Candles and the Home Alone Series are...

or how weird a concept for a movie Weird Science is.
Let's use that as an excuse to listen to that song...

Why is the song 'Weird Science' so much better than the movie 'Weird Science'?

Anyway, here's to you John, you either wrote or directed all of my favorite 1980's (and early childhood 1990's) movies, and for that you'll live in my heart forever.

Word to the wise tho, when they start playing all his movies on the Tv?
Stick with the classics and skip "Baby's Day Out".
He doesn't need to be remembered like that.

Comics Round Up: Black Panther meets Obama

2009-08-06T17:16:00.003-04:00

This week's round up brought to by an awkward picture of Barack Obama and the new Black Panther.

H'okay, so...

Let's start with Black Panther #7, since they're our corporate sponsors. I've bitched and complained about this volume of Black Panther, but this issue makes it seem like things are picking up. It it involved things other than annoying exposition. Shuri actually kicked some ass and T'Challa rolled around in his new Xavier-style chair. There was also this:

Do you wonder if Storm knows about his huge fucking harem?! Grade: B+

The Hangman one-shot was fun and everything, but I just kept thinking: Ghost Rider much? Not that Ghost Rider is a really original idea ("Man makes deal with the Devil..."). He just seems a lot like the Ghost Rider only more psychobilly and less metal. I still like the Hangman's aesthetic and would probably try a few more issues, but I'm not too excited about the rest of the Red Circle heroes and Ghost Rider itself is so much better. Grade: B+

Want a dark meditation on secrets of the future and the past and the alchemy of death in making the future out of love and selflessness? Then go pick up Warren Ellis and Marek Oleksicki's new graphic novella Frankenstein's Womb. I could tell you its a pseudo-biographical piece in which Mary Shelley meets Frankenstein's monster and he teaches her secrets of the future and the past and the alchemy of death in making the future out of love and selflessness, but that really wouldn't make it any less cryptic, now would it? It's grim and black and white. Just go pick it up. It's only $6.99 and the cover art is totally metal. Grade: A

If #600 hadn't been so good, I'd be tempted to say Amazing Spider-Man #601 was the most fun Spider-Man story ever written. Author Mark Waid shines like the finest metals mined by African children in this one. The story opens with a hung over Peter Parker in bed next to someone he doesn't expect and then goes from there. Yummy Spider goodness. Grade: A+

Superman: World of New Krypton #6: And so beings Codename: Patriot. This book reminded me that at some base level Greg Rucka is a born mystery writer who is writing superhero comics out of some dorky fascination. That really comes through as Commander Kal-El and company are dealing with the events around the assassination attempt on Zod. The plot of Codename: Patriot doesn't move forward a lot, but there's a lot of cool character stuff and I could just look at pictures of New Krypton all day. What a cool world! Grade: A-

Luke Cage Noir #1 was another book where the setting really did it for me. The creative team did a good job of using song lyrics, architecture, and costume to render the time period. Also, you can tell that black people are involved in the creative process because Luke goes to barber shop to hang out. Back when Marv Wolfman was writing Power Man, Luke Cage never went to the barber shop. I wonder if Willis Stryker will turn into Diamondback in this continuity too. I keep think of how great noir versions of the cheesier among the classic Luke Cage villains would be. Just imagine 1920s-era version of like

Big Brother or

Chemistro.

Anyway, tangent over. Solid comic. Go read it. Grade: A+

Tomorrow I'll talk about the amazing deal put forward by BOOM studios that allowed me to read the first five issues of Mark Waid's Irredeemable for only 10 clams.

Peace.

I've been thinking about MJ

2009-08-06T13:24:00.009-04:00

When Mostly Roses goes to the comic book store we always grab those comic news fliers printed on newsprint telling us what is going to be released in coming months. What stuck out to me a few trips ago was the Michael Jackson Tribute Comic.

I’ve been thinking entirely too much about (considering it is something I'm really not sure I would buy) the Michael Jackson tribute comic that is coming out in October from Bluewater. I’m sure will be interesting enough, just not my cup of tea.

Everyone’s seen the documentaries, the media coverage, we know about all his weirdness and we danced along when he was a pop golden boy in the 80’s (He was also a fan of the comic book world, there was a point where it was rumored that he wanted to buy Marvel).

But for me when it comes to music, I’m much more interested in what it means to the fans. Documentary or biography is certainly interesting sometimes (especially for someone as peculiar as Michael) , but the thing about being creative is going beyond yourself and I’m always interested in seeing how one persons creation effects other people.

What I’m much more interested in during a time of reflection after the death of a pop star or the breakup of a band are the people who were touched by their music.

Which brings me to Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig's comic for Wide Awake Press' Off the Wall Illustrated Tribute to the King of Pop (Which was a comic con exclusive :/ )

But you can find her contribution about her childhood connection to MJ and music in general, "Do You Remember The Time?" at her livejournal. It's a pretty short read for sure, but it's very sweet and heartfelt.

Sarah Louise Wahrhaftig is also one of the editors of the comix zine 'Always Comics'. Which you can purchase here at her Etsy.

Even black superheroes can't catch a cab

2009-08-04T16:26:00.003-04:00

In honor of Luke Cage: Noir starting tomorrow, I thought it'd be fun to look at anecdote from an old Powerman comic. This vignette from Luke Cage, Powerman #40 reminds us that despite having "steel hard" skin, Luke did not become a black person able to hail a taxi when he was dipped in that vat of chemicals.

Luke Cage is a busy man. Always on the go.

"No problem. I'll just catch the next cab."

Twenty minutes later...

Luke takes matters into his own hands. He is one of the most tenacious superheroes. Keep in mind, this is a guy who faked his own death, escaped from prison, and rebuilt his life from the ground up without so much as a social security number let alone a family fortune or a saucy butler. Eat that Bruce Wayne.

TAKE HOME LESSON:
Luke Cage is not a hero to be trifled with.

Since Luke Cage: Noir is set in the '20s, I hope it'll fill the hole in my life that's existed since I finished Incognegro.

LoL @ Newsarama

2009-08-03T12:02:00.002-04:00

One thing I failed to mention in my review of last week's books was that Mr. Terrific (in Justice Society) and Steel (in Superman) both got their asses handed to them in their own homes during the same week as the Beer Summit. Newsarama's Rev. O.J. Flow comments on the irony:

Without trying to insert partisanship into it, it sure seemed to me to feel like "Skip Gates Week" at DC with key, sometimes shocking developments in two high-profile books bearing striking similarities. In the two books I'm looking at, both featured the series's best and brightest character, a well-educated, technologically advanced black man failing to find safety and refuge in his own sanctuary. Don't for a moment think that I am suggesting that writers Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham and James Robinson (all Caucasian) conspired to make the Justice Society and Superman Family more lily white. But the fact that similar plot developments happened in the same week that "beer summit" became part of the American vernacular was simply too choice to ignore.

I had also failed to make the connection until right now that the same author who recently killed Freedom Beast, had Steel's ass kicked in his own home. I'm less worried about Steel for some reason. He's been such a presence in the background of the past couple of issues of Superman that it seems like he'll stay a recurring cast member.

A friendly little pop pick me up

2009-08-02T16:11:00.005-04:00

Apples in Stereo, well known as part of the The Elephant 6 collective, is one of those bands that will make you feel better if you are feeling a bit down.

A little Lexington Love: Lead singer Robert Schneider is currently attending (unless he's graduated) the University of Kentucky.

Schneider also produced the deeply loved Neutral Milk Hotel Album 'Aeroplane Over The Sea'.

Have a lovely afternoon.

Comics Round Up

2009-07-31T17:24:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've been so lazy about this, folks. I spent most of yesterday in a half asleep stupor when I wasn't performing work functions. It was a fun week for me and my comics buying habit though. A new Hernandez bros. comics, Superman, Ink, lesbian Batwoman... gotta gotta gotta love it. Not to mention the Green Lantern: First Flight direct-to-DVD release which came out Tuesday. So without further ado...

IT'S COMICS ROUND UP TIME!(there will probably be a lot of typos because I haven't had the chance to proofread as much as I should.)

I was hella excited that Superman #690 opened with a battle between Steel and Atlas. I know that no one else is as about Steel as I am but the first extended storyarc I ever read as a child was World Without Superman and I own all 52 issues of his on-going, so I feel pretty emotionally invested in the character. However, what was really exciting about this issue was this:

Ooh! Sexy flirtacious time between the Guardian and Dr. Light! Just what I wanted. And this is my obligatory sentence about how all of the Superman titles are so so good right now. Grade: A

Moving on, Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #3 of 6 was awesome as expected. Instead of ruining the story for folks by describing plot points I just want to put this panel up to demonstrate how awesome the art is.

Dear DC Comics, whatever you are paying Fabrizio Fiorentino (artist) and Michael Dimotta (colors) it is not enough. Hire them for everything. That is all. Love, Will. Grade: A+

Citizen Rex #1, by the legendary Hernandez bros., is about a strung out rich kid online reporter in his late 20s and his robot. It is very noir. This is where I confess that I don't have anything to compare to because I've never read any Love and Rockets. This book makes me believe the hype, though. Grade: A

Detective Comics #855, featuring Batwoman, is another DC comic with phenomenal art. I was having problems getting used to the art in the last issue, but I was totally sold by this spooky and smooth J. H. Williams two page splash of Batwoman swinging holding scary Alice under her arm that's on pages 4 & 5. That two page splash is one of the most beautiful pieces of superhero art I've ever seen. The whole effect of the comic is disorienting, but since they're going for an Alice In Wonderland (which is ballsy because of how poorly it can be done) that works.

Also, Detective Comics features the world's best superhero back up featuring the Question (see above). Grade: A

New Avengers #55 is only worth noting because Jessica Jones informs Spider-Man that Luke Cage has a man-crush on him. I really wish that intead of being an ill conceived hardcover collecting back issues that Marvel Bromance were the male analogue of Marvel Divas and was just like Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Wolverine (maybe Cyclops?) having a night on the town. Oh, also Chemistro was in it (NA, not my hypothetical Marvel Bromance... although...). That was cool.

Green Lantern: First Flight deserves much mention and praise. It was a dramatic, heart-warming tale with very litle exposition. It was just all action and that worked a lot. Our entire blog team watched it as a family. Lindsay apologized for making fun of me for having a Kilowog actiong figure. Everyone liked Ch'p. It was good times.

However, it was not all roses this week. There was some rather disappointing bread as well. First off, Justice Society of America #29. I guess 10 years worth of Geoff Johns JSA comics will do that to anyone else trying to write it. I'm sure I'm not the only one annoyed by addition of two new characters to an already over-sized cast. Grade: B-

Maybe I will try out Matt Sturges' JSA All Stars once it comes out, if only because I am deeply loyal to Stargirl.

The BIG disappointment this week was even more disappointing because it came at the end of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's otherwise stellar run on Fantastic Four. FF #569 was scripted and drawn by a different team and was all reveal with very little tension. This is incredibly subpar performance from one of my favorite titles. Grade: C

Zom-B-Q (or How I stopped worrying learned to love eatin' brains? )

2009-07-30T22:44:00.012-04:00

What's better than a Saturday night out with people who love you for your juicy brains?

Shout out to those readers who are in the Lexington/Richmond/Berea, Kentucky Area!

Collectibles Etc. and the Zombie Emergency Defense (Z.E.D) are hosting a Zom-B-Q at Old Kentucky BBQ (771 E. New Circle RD Lexington) at 8pm on Saturday (August 1st)

There will be raffles (Walking Dead Trades etc.), undead music, and other zombie-approved (or perhaps zombie-killing approved) fun times. All for the low low cost of 3 dollars.
And if dressing up as a zombie and going out is something you're interested in, this is your best bet this social season to do so!

If you're in the area be sure to come check out your nerdy zombie-loving, zombie-killing community.
We, the blog team at bread and roses, being the nerdy zombie aficionado type ourselves, are coming. If that gives you any extra drive to go. (hahah yeah right. :P )

If you have a facebook, you can find the all the event info here.

Hope to see you all there!

Black Panther movie?

2009-07-28T18:00:00.003-04:00

Yeah, people have been kicking this one around forever, but according to my ~~Google Alert on black superheroes~~ Cosmic Awareness the rumor has reared its beautiful, cock-teasing visage yet again. Lost and G.I. Joe actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje had this to say to MTV at Comic-Con:

"We’re talking to Marvel about Black Panther… This is the first round, so you know, hopefully they’ll look at G.I. Joe and see the potential. But it’s about time we have a black superhero, isn’t it?"

"He’s from a fictional village in Africa and the timing is so right for that kind of character to come through… And while I’m in my prime, this is the time. We’ve got [U.S. President Barack] Obama, now we need something on screen to represent, so… ‘Panther,’ man."

Shadow and Act points out that Akinnuoye-Agbaje is wrong to imply there haven't been black superhero movies, citing Spawn and the Blade trilogy. There was also Shaq's stunning performance in Steel and all the black superhero farces: Meteor Man, Blank Man, and Hancock. And if you bend the rules a bit, Men In Black is based on a comic book series. However, as fun as the former of the two films is, Steel and Spawn are bad movies and Blade's not exactly a superhero like Spider-Man or Superman. There hasn't been a good black superhero epic that trades in the fantasies of superherodom tied to a mainstream comic. So far, most of the movies about the black superhero are farcical and treat the black superhero as an absurd object of ridicule (and I say this as someone who really likes Robert Townsend in Meteor Man). For my money, the closest thing to a really good black superhero movie that there has been is the 1984 flick Brother From Another Planet about a mute superpowered alien healer that gets taken in by the regulars at a bar in Harlem. And its not comic book property.

So, Black Panther? Hell yeah! But I just don't have a lot faith in it happening.

Also, I don't know if I like Akinnuoye-Agbaje as T'Challa. He really doesn't look like him. I guess Christian Bale doesn't have the classic Bruce Wayne square chin and he's a great Batman, but still.

I don't really know any actors, because I'm a film/tv cretin and never watch anything, but does anyone have any better suggestions for T'Challa?

Comics got sooooooul

2009-07-28T11:18:00.005-04:00

This is a post about souls in comics. My legion of fans that follows me on Twitter will know that I read a couple cool comics night before last, namely Lost at Sea by Scott Pilgrim's Bryan Lee O'Malley (see panel above) and Sonic Universe #3 starring Shadow the Hedgehog and E-102 codename: Gamma "the robot with a soul" (below). In this post plan on spoiling the ending of Sonic Universe #3, which you were never going to read anyway, but not Lost at Sea, which I suggest all you emotionally frail people out there read.

Gamma, the cutest assassin

While one would think that an Oni Press stream of conscious graphic novel about Canadian teenagers coming of age and an Archie comic about video game characters would be pretty different reads, they were actually both rather twee and quite thematically similar. Both comics were about what it means to be a human being and interrogated this notion through the window of the soul.

Lost at Sea's protagonist Raleigh is a recent high school graduate whose soul was stolen by a cat in the summer before high school. This leads her to spend most of a roadtrip with her peers in self-involved internal monologue like in the panel above. Sonic Universe #3's protagonist Gamma is a robot built to kill by the evil Dr. Robotnik, but who developed a soul and rebelled. Despite his artificial origins, he is a much more put together person than Raleigh. He knows what his purpose in life is--to protect people by fighting Robotnik. Raleigh mostly flails.

The crux of both stories is that people learn how to be people from other people. In the panels above Gamma is confronted by Omega, a new robot sent by his nemesis to end him. Rather than fight Omega, Gamma uploads the code for having a soul into him. Though Omega ultimately uses his superior arsenal to obliterate Gamma, the soul upload causes him to feel remorse. This causes him to join with Shadow in his on-going battle against Dr. Robotnik's evil empire.

Similarly, Raleigh learns that she can be a real person around other people. Omega learns that there's more to life than being a soul-less killing machine. Raleigh learns that other teenagers on the cusp of adult also feel alienated and that its good to cut loose.

Okay, I just had to end with that panel cause its the best ever.

Peace.

Superman and the Legion of Superheroes ftw!

2009-07-27T18:08:00.003-04:00

I just entered a review of the new softcover of Geoff John and Gary Frank's Superman and the Legion of Superheroes story-arc in Collectible's Etc.'s trade paperback review contest. You can read all the entries (including mine) on Collectible's Etc's facebook group. I have a 50/50 chance of winning as only one other person seems to have written a review. Tony's solicitation says he's running the contest till the end of the month, so there's still time to get over there and enter the contest yourself. The prize is store credit.

You're miles from where anyone will find you

2009-07-26T20:37:00.008-04:00

Okay, I'm ashamed of making the sunday afternoon music the same musician two weeks in a row, but I just got home from seeing Neko Case in the historic Ryman Auditorium (best-known for being the old home of the Grand Ole Opry.) with a good friend.

It was fantastic and I am very tired and this is my favorite song, Star Witness from Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, of hers performed live.

Comics Round Up: DC vs. Marvel style FINAL ROUND

2009-07-26T12:49:00.010-04:00

As outlined in my last post, it all comes down to this. With the score at DC: 2, Marvel: 1... this match either means a crushing defeat for Marvel or a stalemate tie. So, without further ado

Round #4: Hard-Hitting Special Release

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5 of 5 versus Amazing Spider-Man #600

With good reason, this is the most hardcore, knock down drag out match of the week. While Marvel's been doing hokey, trumped #600s all year, the product they've delivered has for the most part been solid stuff. Cap #600 was overrated, but both it and Thor #600 were really fun books with good-to-great story. For me, Amazing #600 is the most exciting of these releases, because he's Marvel's best character and one of the best literary inventions of the 20th century. The book featured 102 pages of original story lead by a 64-page Dan Slott and John Romita, Jr., piece that wowed my world. The strength of post-BND Spider-Man has been the double pronged attack of returning the classic ethos of Spidey while updating and reinvigorating it for the 21st century. The Slott story put Peter up against a reimagined Doctor Octopus in a tale of non-stop Spider-fun featuring cameos by Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the New Avengers that were only a little hokey and actually moved the plot along. I love the new Doc Ock and I hope we'll be seeing him again (but not too too soon). Also, the last volume of Black Panther has made me really soft on Romita Jr.'s art, so I'm all about that as well. Some of the bonus features were kind of..."Meh," but a fake cover by Jeph Loeb (for whom I thought it was impossible to do anything good ever) guest-starring Luke Cage entitled "the Shame of the Spider-Son" totally made up for it. My only substantial problem with the book was that the overly publicized appearance of Mary Jane at the end of the Slott story was not dramatic and only served to infuriate me. I know/hope that Marvel isn't stupid enough at this point to bring back Mary Jane back (I'd really rather revisit the Clone Saga...), but her presence makes me hella nervous.

ASM #600 punched hard and Lo3W #5 punched back. It was a really fun story featuring the final fate of Superboy-Prime that I can't go too much into detail about without spoiling. Suffice to say it had sufficient Brainiac 5 silliness, metatextuality, Legion action, continuity masturbation, and superhero bustups to please me. A high point was when Superboy and Kid Flash were gomming around like the good old days and shouted, "Titans Togethers!" It made me quiver. But at the end of the day, it could not stand against the mighty awesomeness that is Amazing Spider-Man.

WINNER: Marvel -- Amazing Spider-Man #600

Which means the final results are DC: 2, Marvel: 2. Which is how I like it. I love both companies. They both till great (if different) stories and have awesome characters. I'm a total nerd and I ride waves of glory through both DC and Marvel continuity.

Peace, y'all. I'm gonna get some Chinese food.

Comics Round Up: DC vs. Marvel style pt 1 of 2

2009-07-24T21:34:00.001-04:00

As per usual, it was a sweet week in the world of my superhero comics, made especially awesome by the San Diego Comic-Con coinciding release of Legion of 3 Worlds #5 and Amazing Spider-Man #600. I've decided to review my pull list in an arbitrary, thematic style pitting a DC book against a Marvel book in the same category. The categories will be Book With Teenage Girl on the Cover, Book About Asian Characters Written by White People, Mainline Superhero Book, and Hard-Hitting Special Release. At the end of this two post contest, I will declare either DC or Marvel the winner of my pull list this week! Let's get this party started!

Round #1: Book With Teenage Girl on the Cover

Supergirl #43 versus X-Force #17

X-Force and Cable are my Marvel guilty pleasure, 90s dark mutant ultraviolence books. X-Force #17 delivered exactly what I wanted. It opens with a bloodied teenage girl clone of Wolverine emerging from the timestream and shooting down a disfigured human supremacist and goes from there. It also features lycanthropes cuddling after sex, Frost Giants, and my babies' momma Domino. You really can't complain. It does what it does.

However, I would argue what Supergirl does has more redeemable value. Along with the beautiful cover pictured below (poster soon?), this issue offered up a cool coming of age story about Kara's relationship with her mother, reflection on the death of her father, and her struggle to decide which place in the Kryptonian guild system was for her. No action really, but some fun mystery and as one should be able to infer from what I've described so far some great story. I was thinking about this yesterday and I decided it was the kind of comic I would want to give to an eight year old and that made me happy.

WINNER: DC -- Supergirl #43

ROUND #2: Book About Asian Characters Written by White People

Final Crisis Aftermath Dance #3 of 6 versus Immortal Weapons #1

White people love Asians and their culture, or, um, at least fetishized Asians and white, fetishized reinterpretations of their culture. That's why Immortal Iron Fist was such a cult hit! Unfortunately, when I started reading comics hardcore two years ago I was too stupid to get into Marvel comics and had not started catching up on Immortal Iron Fist until very recently (like last night). Anyway, I took the launch of this Immortal Weapons series by Jason Aaron and a whole slew of very talented artists to jump on the kung fu bandwagon. It's a series about the seven (you guessed it) Immortal Weapons, the martial arts champions of the mythological Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, which only appear on Earth (i.e., China) ever so often. I think they have to enter into some kind of Mortal Kombat style scenario. This issue was about a fat kung fu master named Fat Cobra and his long decadent decadent life. There was also a cool Duane Swierczynski Iron Fist back up set in the Hood. I likes me some back ups.

Anyway, Immortal Weapons is stacked up against Dance by Joe Casey and former Milestone penciller Chriscross, featuring the Super Young Team--a posse of Japanese teenage superheroes invented by Grant Morrison as a satire on DC's treatment of characters of color and the silliness of Japanese use of American culture. For instance, the team's leader is named Most Excellent Superbat whose power is being so rich that he can do anything. I got into this book because he has a Twitterfeed running constantly through out the text. This issue was set at a Super Young Team fan convention in Dubai (apropos for Comic-Con, no?). Unfortunately, I found this particular issue too weirdly non-linear to follow, even if it was pretty funny at points. Therefore, this round has to go to...

WINNER: Marvel -- Immortal Weapons #1

ROUND #3: Mainline Superhero Book

Green Lantern #44 versus Black Panther #6

(See, I'm being edgy by calling Black Panther a "mainline superhero title.")

So, I hate to be so uncreative as to just come out and say it this way, but this one was a massacre. It's been a bad 6 months for Black Panther and I don't like Shuri. However, there's more to my not liking what's going on in Black Panther than that. Everything that's happened over the last six issues of Black Panther could have happened in two. I know this is a fact because mad story goes down in the Bad Mutha trade (which is required reading for humans) and that was only like 3 issues. I'm made at Reginald Hudlin because I know he can do better than this. Also, I'm not a fan of Ken Lashley's art.

On the other hand, Green Lantern #44 knocked my socks off. A reanimated J'onn Jones chasing Hal Jordan and Barry Allen around Gotham City. The story has fun action and great chracterization. Can't beat it. Also, it seems like the next issue of Green Lantern will be very John Stewart and Xanshi focused and you know that's my bag (see leading graphic of this blog).

WINNER: DC -- Green Lantern #44

So, to recap, the score is DC: 2, Marvel: 1 with one comic book match up remaining. I had more work than expected today, so the secret reveal of which company wins will be made sometime this weekend or more likely on Monday. Check back... XP~!

AN EVERY MORNING JAM

2009-07-24T09:18:00.000-04:00

"Tears Dry On Their Own" -- Amy Winehouse

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS!!!

On the absurdity of women comic book characters

2009-07-23T16:15:00.000-04:00

For me, the most personally embarassing part of being really into superhero comics is how women's bodies are portrayed on the page. It's really just ludicrous. This week's Tales of the Corps Blackest Night tie-in was abundant with examples of this. As a general rule, I like Green Lantern space-in-the-DC-Universe short stories like the ones in Tales of the Corps, but it doesn't mean images like this one don't have me looking cock-eyed.

Take a gander at the Red Lantern Bleez pencilled by Eddy Barrows. While this is normal fair for superhero comics, she does not look like a normal human being and its not because of the black, feathered wings or the shiny chrome-colored skin. Follow the curve of her back. Have you ever seen a woman proportioned like that? And check her out from behind. Non-existant in the middle but she got much back.

And then there's the story about Hal Jordan's ex-long term girlfriend Carol Ferris becoming Star Sapphire again. Nevermind that Star Sapphire was a crazed, murderous bitch who butchered John Stewart's wife to death out of spite and is now supposed to be the paragon of love on the emotional spectrum. Nevermind that the Star Sapphires are one of the "erratic" emotional/color corps and they just happen to be all made up of women. Just check this image of Carol in her new digs out.

Now, in this picture she is proportioned like a relatively normal human being. However, I wonder why the creative decision was made to send the Star Sapphires into battle against the blood thirsty Sinestro Corps dressed like that. They look like that V dress Jennifer Lopez wore to the Grammys a few years back, but without the covering for the legs.

(In other words, she is basically naked.)

All of this is very embarassing when your friend's wife is bashing superhero comics in general (because, you know, they're not graphic novels) and making fun of Starfire's ass on the cover of the first Geoff Johns Teen Titans trade. This makes stories that are really good seem dumb and worse than that panders to sexist fantasies that are harmful to women. We superhero fans deserve and should demand better of our favorite titles. However, what worries me is the most vocal and high profile folks don't seem to see any problem in the way women are drawn. For instance, this reviewer at major comics site Newsarama (scroll down, it's the fourth review after Iron Man) described this portrayal of Black Cat on the cover of Marvel Divas as "Va-va-voom!"

BOOBY BONUS ROAD: Boobage from this week's covers

Dawnstar's gratuitous boob window front and center. Now since she's supposed to be flying through the sky on the cover of Lo3W #5, there's no reason she should have an o-face in this shot. Unless she literally gets off on flying. Or she's crapping her tights and she really likes it.

The new Black Panther's giant-sized tits! There's no way Shuri could do all those back flips and fancy martial artistry while supporting the wait of those knockers with her tiny tiny body. It's been 6 months. Can I have T'Challa back already?

I hope it’s not as long as these country miles

2009-07-22T12:35:00.005-04:00

My personal America's lost it's best citizen.

Today would be a good day to take off work.

Catching up on Legion of Three Worlds

2009-07-21T11:49:00.006-04:00

So, as I've made abundantly clear, I am doing insane backflips in pre-celebration of tomorrow's release of Lo3W #5. This is a comic I've been waiting for for about a year. Now, I love going down to the store every Wednesday and reading things in floppy format and experiencing the weekly grind and waiting and waiting as much as the next supernerd, but when my floppies are stretched out three and four months apart, it's really easy to forget what happened in the last issue. I'm sure some of you may have experienced this same problem, so I'm going to take this Tuesday to catch myself and y'all up on the beauty that is Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds issue-by-issue.

If you have been waiting for the trade or plan on borrowing my comics, you should not read this post.

Issue #1:
- The Time Trapper pulls Superboy Prime out of the timestream he was shot into in the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War dropping him off in Smallville.

- Superboy Prime goes apeshit and destroys the Superman museum. While doing this he learns of the prison world Takron-Galtos where the Legion of Supervillains (LSV) is stored.

- Meanwhile, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy are verbally assaulted by the United Planets. Assaults against humans have ramped up around the galaxy as xenophobia runs rampant on Earth. UP ambassadors from across the universe tell they are immature for believing in universal harmony.

- Sunboy is a pansy and his powers don't work anymore. IMPORTANT POINT: Since he can create red sunlight, he is potentially the only person who can actually hurt Superboy-Prime.

- Longtime Legion benefactor industrialist R.J. Brande mysteriously appears to speak on the Legion's behalf. He is assassinated. At the moment of his death, he reverts to his true alien physiognomy and it is reveal that he is a SKRULL--urg, I mean a Durlan. Massive rioting and xenophobia ensues.

- Superboy-Prime frees the LSV. It turns out they have always been inspired by his legendary evil.

- Outgunned, the Legion of Superheroes (LSH) pulls Superman out of the present into the 31st century. Lightning Lad wants to break the Legion code and put Superboy-Prime down put Superman responds by saying that they'll have to redeem him. Brainiac 5 sets in motion a plan to defeat Superboy-Prime and the LSV.

Issue #2:
- Superboy-Prime and the LSV kill Rond Vidar the last Green Lantern while recruiting Mordru into their ranks on Sorceror's World.

- Superman and a team of Legionnaires while Brainiac 5 carries out a plan to summon forth the LSHes from two other dimensions (thus the title!) and sends Mon-El and Shadow Lass after Sodam Yat, now the last Guardian of the Universe and last Green Lantern.

- Sun Boy sulks and drinks beer.

Issue #3:
- Mon-El convinces his fellow Daxamite the now ancient Sodam Yat to return to Earth and fight Superboy-Prime.

- Massive two page battle splashes between the LSH and the LSV leaving Metropolis a lot worse for wear.

- LSHes from other dimensions show up on the scene, just in the knick of time.

- Brainiac 5 despatches Dawnstar, Wildfire, and Polarboy into the past to collect a strand of the adolescent Lex Luthor's hair.

- Brainiac 5/Geoff Johns perform to some retconning acrobatics.

- Sodam Yat arrives on the scene.

- Sun Boy spills his drink when he hears the report that an alternate Sun Boy

- XS, three Lightning Lads, and two Lightning Lasses use the cosmic treadmill to bring the Kid Flash, Bart Allen, back to life! (and not as a weird adult)

Issue #4:
- It turns out that weird shit Starman was doing in JSA last year actually had to do with exhuming Superboy and moving him to a Kryptonian healing matrix beneath the Fortress of Solitude.

- Kid Flash and Sodam Yat pound on Superboy-Prime.

- The Time Trapper pulls Superman, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad out of the timestream. He is covered in cockroaches.

- Sun Boy stops drinking.

- Kryptonite mysteriously hurts Superboy-Prime. Cosmic King heals him. Mordru, fresh from killing Legion mystic Kinetix, informs Superboy-Prime that unless he destroys the Fortress of Solitude victory will be the LSH's.

- A rag tag LSH posse along with Kid Flash and Sodam Yat chase after Superboy-Prime as he heads towards the North Pole. Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 along with two alternate versions of himself, Light Lass, and Gates meet the Legionnaires he sent back in time to collect Lex Luthor's hair.

- Battle and drama ensue. Wildfire acts desperate towards Dawnstar. At the last minute when it seems like the Kryptonian healing matrix is going to have the time to work its juju with Lex's hair deadbeat Sun Boy shows up. Superboy is resurrected. Begin LSH versus Superboy-Prime round two.

- In the far future, Superman fights the Time Trapper and rips off his robe, revealing that the Time Trapper is Superboy-Prime.

And that's where tomorrow's issue will pick up... can't wait for it! Can't wait for Adventure Comics! It's so good to have Bart and Connor alive. Best day.

Life-saving to do list

2009-07-21T10:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I spent close to eight hours playing with HeroMachine. Quite simply, this is unforgiveable. This is why I have made myself a high-powered to do list.

-Read the Lexington Herald-Leader. It's really cool when the Cambridge police arrest the chair of Harvard's Black Studies Department.

-Read my blogs-- Title Undetermined, The Absorbascon, Living Between Wednesdays, and 4thletter!

-Listen to Fourcast. (David Brothers reveals that he used to write fanfiction)

-Finally review Who Is The Black Panther? for Collectibles, Etc.

-Reread Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1-4.

-If all else fails, read Sharknife, Wonton Soup: A Space Trucker Cooking Opera, and Lost at Sea.

What I'm Working on Today + reading advice

2009-07-20T13:55:00.004-04:00

So, I should be working Collectibles, Etc.'s review competition. I'm reviewing Who Is The Black Panther? by Reginald Hudlin and John Romita Jr.--an excellent read if you've never read. My man Tony Florence is trying to put together a collection of 10 or so reviews of mainstream comics written by costumers at the store and as the facebook solicitation reads, "The best review will get a 20 dollar Collectibles, Etc. gift certificate...." If you're from the area and want to try and win 20 dollars worth of comics, you should write up a review and post here on the Collectibles, Etc., facebook group.

However, I find myself infinitely sidetracked by this gizmo that Tiina over at Living Between Wednesdays has made me aware of. Enter the HeroMachine 2.5. It allows yout to create comic book characters from various templates that resemble your friends. It is highly addictive. I'll post ones I've made of my cobloggers once I figure out how to do a screen capture on this shitty computer.

In other news, FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #5 of 5 IS FINALLY COMING OUT ON WEDNESAY! Have you been rereading your wonderful wonderful Superboy and Kid Flash-ful back issues. I hope so, because I have.

Sunday Afternoon Jam- Neko Case

2009-07-19T18:00:00.009-04:00

Here is a lovely song / music video for your sensory pleasure.

There is nothing about this song or video that doesn't please me to the very core of my being.

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I am lucky enough to be going to see Neko Case next weekend in Tennesse.

Also, she is like the most beautiful woman in the known universe:

Hope you had a great weekend.

Comics Round Up

2009-07-17T15:12:00.003-04:00

Along with it being a good week for this whole "Dead Will Rise" Blackest Night hub-bub, this was a good week for jet packs...

Cyclops had one in Dark Avengers #7, Buck Rogers is a quintessentially jet-pack wearing kind of guy, Hardware was in Brave and the Bold #25, and even Nightwing and Flamebird's costumes in Action Comics look like they ought to involve jetpacks. Anyway, let's get this party started...

Buck Rogers #2: I don't know if I've ever read anything drawn by Carlos Rafael before, but this series really has me falling in love with his art. It looks realistic, but not in a way that makes the genetically engineered spacefreaks or robots annoying. This issue was even better than the first one, but unfortunately did not end with a cyborg bear. I'm definitely going to keep reading this series. Pulpy sci-fi is a nice change of pace from usual superhero fair. Grade: A

Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter #2 of 3: This mini by writer Kieron Gillen and penciler Kano (who knew that guy from Mortal Kombat could draw?) is really solid. To recap, Beta Ray Bill is a horse-faced alien with Thor's powers who is chasing Galactus around using a bunch of superweapons he stole from a space-cult to destroy planets before the Devourer of Worlds can consume them. This book is full of plot twists that are actually unexpected. I don't mind paying $4 per issue because each one comes with an old Walt Simonoson Thor comic in the back recounting the original meeting of Thor and Beta Ray Bill. This series is totally fun and definitely one of my top 5 books right now. I hope that it sells well enough to encourage Marvel to keep Kieron Gillen writing Beta Ray Bill for some time. Grade: A+

Dark Reign: Mr. Negative #2 of 3: Long live post-Brand New Day Spider-Man! I love Mr. Negative. He's my favorite new Spider-Man villain. This mini written by Wolverine First Class' Fred Van Lente with art by Gianluca Gugliotta demonstrates an incredibly important point--i.e. that Mr. Negative is an extreme bad ass. Let the pictures do the talking.

It's probably a combination of the suave martial artistry and Chinatown backdrop with my own preoccupations, but there's just something so swank and seventies about this series that makes me look past that its just another $4-a-book Dark Reign tie-in. If you like Amazing Spider-Man, this one is definitely worth checking out. Grade: A+

The Brave and the Bold #25: It was really clever on Adam Beechen's part to team up the nicest and most eager superhero in the world Blue Beetle with the most tremendous asshole in DC's stable right now Hardware. It's cute how Blue Beetle keeps talking about home much he loves team ups while Hardware just snubs his love. I guess this is sort of a stock story, but its still really. However, I didn't like how they did Hardware's face with it just being his skin instead of a black mask. Grade: B+

As a side note, I wish someone would do a Brave and the Bold where Rocket teams up with Cyclone or Lightning or Stargirl or Static or Blue Beetle or Tim Drake before he became dumb or anyone and is just really saucy and amazing. Rocket should also join the Teen Titans. Then I would start reading it again.

Amazing Spider-Man #599: With the cool 1970s variant retro cover that has nothing to do with the story! I've been pretty ambivalent to the American Son storyarc, but now that it's said and done, I'll say that I liked it pretty well, but not as much as say... New Ways to Die! In this issue Harry developed moral fortitude and kicked ass. There was a whole lot of Peter/Harry friendship pathos. It was sweet though not as sweet as Dark Reign: Mr Negative. Grade: A

Action Comics #879: I don't know why General Lane sent Orcs to attack Nightwing and Flamebird, but I really like the special agent with the neon tattoos on her face and the evil Kryptonian couple that are always having explicit sex in the sky and murdering people. Also I really like the Captain Atom back up because there's almost no words (which is really solid). Hopefully, it officially codifies the precedent set by Final Crisis of ignoring that Countdown ever happened. Superman comics are so good right now. Grade: A

Dark Avengers #7 (X-Men/Dark Avengers Utopia chapter 3): This was a fun issue for me because I absolutely love Emma Frost. Usually, Emma is a more morally ambiguous hero than her fellow X-Men, but now that she's made her bed with Norman and his psychopaths, it's cool to see Emma complaining about torture and people being evil and stuff. It helps one remember why she joined the X-Men in the first place. She loves her people and she's not actually evil. Also in this issue, Cyclops has a jetpack (see beginning of post) and throws down the gauntlet at Norman Osborn. Go Matt Fraction Go! Grade: A

Batman: Streets of Gotham #2: The new Batman and Robin continue their battle with Firefly. Hush (now publically disguised as the late/lost in time Bruce Wayne) pulls some ridiculous shit. However, the main Paul Dini/Dustin Nguyen story was not as interesting as the Marc Andreyko/Georges Jeanty Manhunter back up. As I said last month, before SoG #1, I had never read a Manhunter story and this was a great mistake on my part. In this week's story, Manhunter goes after a creepy, skinless supervillain called Jane Doe. It's gross and awesome. Grade: A-

Blackest Night #1 of 8: Speaking of things that are gross and awesome... Blackest Night is horrifically awesome. Johns opens the story on the national holiday established when Superman died. The premise is that when the big guy came back to life, the holiday became a day of remembrance for all superheroes who have died in the line of service and all the normal folks who have died during superhero crises. This sets the stage for a good study of death in the DC Universe. Though the comic starts out with a poigniant reflection on death, it soon kicks into gear and becomes a gothic space opera superhero zombie comic. In my head, I thought the Black Lantern Corps was going to be more like GLC and Sinestro Corps, but it seems like every superpowered being in the history of Earth and the universe is going RISE! That's pretty exciting. Issue 1 has a great melodramatic ending that I won't spoil for you. DO IT! Grade: A

Also, does anyone wanna bet there will be a scene featuring John Stewart, Fatality, and a bunch of dead Xanshians in aftermath of which John Stewart comes to terms with his greatest failure? Also, an awful scene where he fights Katma Tui? Yuck. I hope they find some way to bring her back during this mess.

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 of 3: Three short stories from three different corps. Two by Geoff. One by Peter Tomasi. This issue is worth it alone for the first short story which is the Blue Lantern Saint Walker's secret origin. Also stories about Mongul's little boy and the Indigo Tribe. I couldn't really get behind the Indigo Tribe story because I was distracted by the monosyllabic non-words they spoke in. Still, a good buy. Grade: A

Bringing Ya To The Gunshow

2009-07-16T19:52:00.012-04:00

So I said I like webcomics, and I meant it…
so let me talk to you about K.C. Green's work.

This is the man that’s responsible for the dickbutt, although you probably have the kids over at 4chan to blame for you knowing what that is. (If you know what it is.)

(To be honest, being an artist myself I identify with him drawing dickbutt right after promising to never waste paper....)

But, he also has done some pretty funny things that haven't been turned into irratating memes like dickbutt. His comics are constantly posted on my friends’ facebooks (Is that a measuring stick for funny? Well, no, but yes.) and have brought me bits of lovely (and free) entertainment.

While The Watchmen was about to hit theatres K.C. was doing a nice run on his Webcomic, Gun Show, about the characters.

They start here. There aren't too many of them, so there is no excuse for you to not click that link right now.(There aren't that many about The Watchmen is what I mean. Gun Show has tons of work for your clicking pleasure. He's doing a run right now all about an anime club and their greasy and awkward adventures watching those animated jewels from the east.)

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How's that for a first real post? A Dickbutt. We strive to be classy here at 'Mostly Roses...'

Sweet Water Whiskey!!! A Wild Laserpanda Appeared?

2009-07-15T14:26:00.007-04:00

My name is Lindsay (Other aliases include Laserpanda or Rinzii) and I will be joining Will and Reese here at "Bread and Roses..."

I find introductions difficult, so...

I am a college student getting a BFA in Printmaking.
I am interested in looking at and discussing comics as an Art (Art with a Capital A) form.
I like 'sad bastard' music.
I don't like the word 'quirky' when used as a descriptor for something created.
(I.e. A person can be quirky, a piece of art cannot) I just think that it is dismissive.
I am attempting to watch more classic and thought provoking movies, so I may talk about that as well.
When it comes to comics, I'm not interested so much in the superhero angle...
But I am interested in thinking about comics in their own artistic aesthetic.
I have two betta fish. They are my babies.
I love semicolons.
and webcomics. I love webcomics.

I'm glad to be here and hope to be up and blogging soon.

Incognegro

2009-07-15T11:21:00.008-04:00

Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery softcover
$14.99
Writer: Mat Johnson
Artist: Warren Pleece
Vertigo Comics

There are a lot of good reasons to read this graphic novel. When a fellow student in Africana Studies at Brown told me this book's title and premise, I was completely sold. When I actually got the softcover in my hands a few weeks later, I was not disappointed.

This black-and-white noirish mystery that takes place during the early days of the Harlem Renaissance, tells the story of a light-skinned African American named Zane Pinchback who uses his complexion and a hair-straightener to act as the "Incognegro" and document lynchings for a major black newspaper. If this description alone doesn't make you want to jump out your seat and buy the book right now in this affordable softcover edition, I think there's probably something wrong with you, but I'll continue anyway.

Beyond being a powerful visual demonstration of a tragic and often undertaught aspect of the Jim Crow era that any high school American history teacher could benefit from (the first page of the book is a full page splash of a lynching with the narration box, "Between 1889 and 1918, 2,522 negroes were murdered by lynch mobs in America. That we know of."), the book is a rewarding maze of surprising twists and turns, commentary on the human condition, and believable characters of all stripes. This brutal era in our collective history as Americans provides the perfect back drop for a tale of the strength and beauty of the human spirit even in the face of dehumanization and death.

While this graphic novel falls well into the mystery genre it does have fun and not-over-blown elements borrowed from superhero fiction as well. I love how Mat Johnson racializes the concept of the superhero secret identity in Zane Pinchback, putting a different spin on passing by making it an act like donning of Batman's cowl or Clark Kent stepping into the proverbial telephone booth. This aspect of the book is something I'd like to return to in a broader academic investigation of race and secret identities. I also love the book's villain, a Klan official determined to find out and kill the Incognegro whose disfigured face and white robes evoke the image of a costumed supervillain.

I recommend this book to everyone regardless of what kind of fiction or comics they usually do or don't enjoy. It's well written and drawn enough that anyone will enjoy it.

Grade: A+

this Teaser is a Pleaser

2009-07-15T10:02:00.004-04:00

So, Reesey-cup's postings here on Bread and Roses has been such a success, that we've made the decision to bring on another team member. [GENDER NEUTRAL PRONOUN HERE]'ll be revealed later today, so be sure to check back.

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BREAD AND ROSES BLOGGER?

Geoff Johns' Bastille Day Morning Jam

2009-07-14T11:22:00.005-04:00

So, as I've reported, thanks to my new English friends (you know who you are), I am now addicted to Twitter. This has led to such (un?)fortunate scenarios as my liveblogging mine and Reese's exploits on Monster Rancher 2 and obsessively following my favorite comic authors' quotitidian activities and chatter with each other. I recognize that I am no different from people who read People magazine and I'm not sorry. Today, I learned that this song is Geoff Johns' Morning Jam today (it's still morning out in Cali).

I want you to imagine Geoff Johns listening to this song when you're reading Blackest Night #1 later this week. It will feel awesome.

(PS -- Follow me on Twitter @WillinSpace)
(PPS -- Follow Reese on Twitter @eeaarr)

The Death of Freedom Beast

2009-07-13T14:12:00.006-04:00

Despite not reading Cry For Justice (for reasons discussed here), I feel the need to comment on something of some significance that took place in its first issue--namely, the death of Freedom Beast.

Why is this important? For those of you who don't know, Freedom Beast is Grant Morrison's 1989 reinvention of a Silver Age third or fourth string character named B'Wana Beast (who folks may know from episodes of Justice League Unlimited and the Brave & the Bold). The fate of Freedom Beast is important for a number of reasons that can be better dissected once we have better grasp on the guy who he replaced.

B'Wana Beast was basically a white guy given the magical African superpower to combine two animals into chimaeras. As Batman notes during B'Wana Beast's brief cameo on the Brave & the Bold, it's sort of a gross power. He exists in the same sort of mythologized faux-African universe as Tarzan and other white king of the jungle narratives that grow out of a pretty basely racist fantasy. Tarzan grew out of a thought experiment on the part of Edgar Rice Burroughs based in eugenic pseudo-science. He sought to demonstrate what would happen if a well-born white English baby were left to raise himself in the wild jungle of the "Dark Continent." Since Tarzan was genetically superior to all of his surroundings, he would of course rise to kingship of the jungle, even without the influence of "superior European culture." Another aspect of this racist fantasy is the erasure of indigenous peoples from this mythologized African landscape. The participants in stories about Tarzan, Shana the She-Devil, B'Wana Beast, and yes George of the Jungle are almost always all white people and animals. In the wilds of this mythologized Africa, human beings don't exist.

What Grant Morrison did in the pages of Animal Man in the late 80s was seek to rehabilitate the concept of B'Wana Beast while making a statement about Apartheid. In the story, Animal Man accompanies B'Wana Beast to choose a successor for his mantle. Whatever the fictional deus ex machina magic thingy/force that gave B'Wana Beast his powers was had selected a black man rotting in a South African prison for political crimes. This man elects to use his new powers to fight the Apartheid regime and reinvents the mantle as Freedom Beast. He, Animal Man, and the former B'Wana Beast then team up to defeat a regiment in the South African army.

The insertion of a black man living in an actual contemporary African country with other black people not portrayed with bones through their noses into the positon of B'Wana Beast is a big deal in and of itself. This move on the part of Morrison counteracts the original erasure at the root of the white king of the jungle fantasy. As far as I know, and there are a lot of you out there with much more knowledge of DC Continuity than I have, Freedom Beast is DC's only character developed in this vein. And come to think of it, he's the only African superhero in DC's stable that I can think of other than Congorilla (who we'll be talking about later) and Vixen (who doesn't actually live in Africa).

What makes Freedom Beast even more significant is that he's one of the only superheroes of the contemporary era that is political in a way that is oppositional to the status quo. Now we should note that all superheroes are political and not because Guy Gardner supports a hawkish foreign policy and Wally West is pro-union. The way that superheroes do their thing generally seeks to reinforce the basic social rules that govern society. This is a political agenda, even if its a largely invisible one. Even Marvel's heroes who "seek to protect a world that hates and fears them" do so in order to protect the world basically as it is. Freedom Beast's goal was to use his superpowers to destroy the Apartheid government and rewrite the social rules governing South Africa. Freedom Beast is a radical superhero who fights structural white supremacy. While Luke Cage may occasionally fight corny white supremacists in high-powered techno armor, you would never see him pounding at the fundamental structures of a society. And there's a good reason for that, it would never sell or at least that's popular wisdom.

All of this makes Freedom Beast a literarily important and beautifully unique creation. That's why it disturbs me that James Robinson and his editors have decided that is okay to use Freedom Beast as cannon fodder to inspire Congorilla to want...JUSTICE!

This means that the now geared up Congorilla is DC's only non-emigres African superhero. This presents a problem that goes deeper than Congorilla being a giant ape named Congorilla. As Comicvine and Wikipedia have educated me, Congorilla is actually a white Livingstone/Kazar-type explorer named Congo Bill who becomes a giant gorilla and fights poachers. This is the face of African superheroism today at DC Comics:

If they're going to pull this, I think they at least need to run a sequel series to Vixen: Return of the Lion and I don't know if that would really make up for it or even if could be made up for. We need to stop treating Africa this way in our pop culture adventure fiction. It's a diverse continent full of y'know actual indigenous people not just fictional Gorilla Cities and wild beasts and white adventurers "gone native."

Anyway, that's my two cents. What do y'all think?

What did you say your Kroger is called?

2009-07-13T12:01:00.003-04:00

Ace Weekly had a great re-post a few weeks ago, explaining the nicknames for area Kroger stores. (Is this a time to use the word "folksonomy?") I think my favorite is DeathStar Kroger ("for size, scope, ability to buy furniture and jewelry there.") Apparently the one on Euclid is Lexington's Disco Kroger...

As Legend has it (meaning it might or might not be true), Kroger on Euclid was the first Kroger in Lexington to be open 24 hours, circa 1970s, making it an after-hours mecca for Cruising when bars like the Bungalow closed for the night. Hence: Disco Kroger. That’s the story, as told to Ace, circa 1980s.

Sounds fair. Atlanta, too, has a Disco Kroger, which had an identical story: "In the early 1970s, it welcomed bell-bottom clad party-goers at all hours in a strip mall at the crossroads of Atlanta." And since that crossroads is Piedmont-Peachtree in the heart of fancy party-all-the-time Buckhead... Can you imagine the 70s fun? Plus, they actually hung up a disco ball.

Last year KrogerCo officially renovated that store, turning it into some "Fresh Fare" concept to better cater to all the Lexus SUV drivin' Buckhead Betties. Good thing they left the disco ball!!!

More recently, Ace realized there may be no Lexington analogue for Murder Kroger.

Why I'm No Longer Reading Justice League

2009-07-13T10:51:00.004-04:00

This post is a tardy announcement that I am not reading James Robinson and Mauro Cascioli's Justice League: Cry For Jusice miniseries and as of Dwayne McDuffie's firing the regular Justice League series as well. This started out as a post about the significance of the death of Freedom Beast in Cry For Justice (which I'll hopefully write later today), but my explanation of why I'm not reading Justice League any longer is worth a post of its own.

This is a huge move for me, because Justice League is the only title I've been reading (in trade paperback format anyway) since I was twelve years old. Chalk it up to old Super Friends cartoons, but my loyalty runs so deep that I even suffered through the cheesecake and bad writing of Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes' run. It was a relief when McDuffie took the title over, because here was man whose work on the Justice League cartoon I knew I could trust and whose endeavors with Milestone Media I highly respected.

My decision to stop reading Justice League springs from my frustration with the shitty hand that DC dealt McDuffie over his tenure on the title and how they've booted him. I know the press around his firing says it has to do with his McDuffie's Internet presence and spoilers rather than the quality of his work, but as a McDuffie fan, a Justice League fan, and a Milestone fan, I still feel burned and that as an individual I have to do something, even if its a feeble withholding of my 6 dollars a month that would have otherwise gone to the regular title and the accompanying miniseries. It hurts to have hung on for months and months waiting for the crises and crossovers to end so that McDuffie could spread his creative wings and just as things were beginning to get good... bam, my main man and (likely his characters from the 1990s) are gone. I'm sorry. That just means I'm gone too.

If I learn that Len Wein or James Robinson are doing cool things with Icon and Hardware and their ilk, I'll come back because those are characters I believe in and want to support, but I'm somehow doubtful that this is how its going to go down. Fortunately, for me the next two months of Brave and the Bold feature Hardware and Xombi, so I'll be able to get some Milestone action there.

(Of course, I'm also helped along in this decision by the previews of Cry for Justice which were comically bad. I suggest folks check out Cheryl Lynn's parody over at Digital Femme.)

Comics Round Up

2009-07-10T11:08:00.004-04:00

Green Lantern #43: I wish I could sleep all peaceful-like like the Black Hand.

I just keep dozing off in the early evening and waking up at like 10:30 and not being to sleep in earnest. Maybe I should take to sleeping amongst corpses in a hole!

Anyway, the writing and art on this issue were solid, but I'm getting Blackest Night prologue fatigue. I'm ready for the damn thing to get going next week. The folks down at Collectibles, Etc., compared this to one of Geoff's issues on The Flash written from Mirror Master's perspective that ends with him doing a line of coke off a mirror. The self-indulgent thing that Black Hand does is a lot creepier than doing a line of coke, but rest assured, this issue ends with the Black Hand's self being indulged. Grade: A

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36: This was a nice reprieve from the American Son storyline that is concluding next week. It's cool to have Spider-Man in New Avengers, but I like leaving the part of Spidey's life that deals with whatever company-wide event is going on at Marvel outside of the pages of Amazing. In this issue, J. Jonah Jameson, Sr. takes May, Peter, and J. Jonah Jameson, Jr. to an engagement party in Boston. There are lots of hokey jokes about the way Bostonians sound including a guy in every crowd yelling, "Jeter sucks!" Spidey does battle with a villain named Velicoraptor whose trying to kill Peter because he's mistaken him for Ben Reilly. Does anyone else get the feeling that Marvel's trying to convince us to read the upcoming mini that retells the Clone Saga? Grade: A

Superman: World of New Krypton #5 of 12: Kal goes before a Kryptonian court for treason, does self-less things, and comes out smelling like a rose without breaking the law or compromising his principles. Basically, a stock Superman story. World of New Krypton has been one of my favorite titles lately, but this issue was sort of boring. There's a big surprise ending on the last page that feels anti-climactic. Grade: B

Dark X-Men #1 of 3: Each issue of this mini features three short stories each about a different member of Norman Osborn's "Dark" X-Men team each written and drawn by a different creative team. This issue features stories about Namor, Mimic, and Dark Beast. The Mimic and Dark Beast stories were stronger than the Namor one, but they were all worth reading. It's hard to review with out going too into depth because the stories are so short. Just go read it. I'm lazy. Grade: A

G.I Joe Origins #5: Larry Hama reveals the truth behind the subprime mortgage debacle and the recession: IT WAS A SUPER-TERRORIST PLOT THAT G.I. JOE FAILED TO STOP. Grade: A

Wednesday Comics

2009-07-09T10:49:00.005-04:00

As the Internet will assuredly tell you, the big event in comics this week is DC's new Wednesday Comics periodical featuring 15 strips by 15 different creative teams. These beautiful comics are published on newsprint with the goal of getting folks interested in the idea of weekly color superhero or adventure strips again. While, of course, the strips feature DC superstars like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the real gems of the collection are DC's lesser known properties.

My favorite strip this week was Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred's Metamorpho strip. It bubbles with retro 1940s charm as Metamorpho has to kick into gear to rescue his effete heiress girlfriend Sapphire from her own desire for shiny objects. Dig it:

It's their love of giant clams that gets the womenfolk every time.

Other high points of the periodical were Dave Gibbon's and Ryan Sook's Kamandi strip, Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck's Deadman, and of course DC EiC Dan Didio et al.'s Metal Men. Each of the strips bring forward something a little different and special. For instance, Pope's Strange Adventures gives the reader a conflict between Earthling Spaceman Adam Strange and a hoard of blue Space Mandrills:

However, not all of Wednesday Comics was good. The high profile Superman and Batman strips were kind of boring. Wonder Woman and Hawkman were straight up bad. Kyle Baker's Hawkman strip opens with an eagle behind Hawkman narrating, "WE FLAP," as he and a diverse flock of other predatory birds follow Hawkman towards a plane that has been hijacked by terrorists and goes down hill from there.

I'm also not completely sold on the price point. I understand that color is expensive to print and that writers and artists gotta get paid and that the market is shrinking, but I still feel bad paying 4 bucks for a piece of newsprint when the rest of my books are on slick paper that doesn't feel weird on my fingers.

That being said, it's cool to see Metamorpho, Kamandi, and Deadman get trotted around. I'll probably keep following it.

Inaugural Jamz

2009-07-08T23:11:00.003-04:00

My EVERY MORNING video jam:

Yeah, it gets a little odd around the three minute mark. But stick with it for excellently awkward DANCING. Danke für alles!

Scott Pilgrim: Read these books

2009-07-08T10:43:00.005-04:00

I'm going to do something I haven't been in the habit of doing and that's recommend a comic that's good for people who don't want to read 60 superhero titles a week. I'm trying to get into more fun, indie stuff and you all are going to be the beneficiaries. Sounds good, no?

Last month, I reviewed the now 5 years old Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life written and drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Since that time I've had the pleasure of catching myself up through the current volume 5 Scott Pilgrim versus the Universe. The series, about the romance between a 23-year old precious Canadian geek and rocker named Scott Pilgrim and an American "ninja" delivery girl named Ramona, builds on itself well and only gets better and more dramatic as it goes along. While this manga-inspired cutefest is a funny romance comic set in the backdrop of Toronto's 20-something hipster music scene, it is also a wild ride of zany, fast-paced fight scenes and dorky video game references. The premise of the series is that to safely date Ramona, Scott must defeat her Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in combat. Dig this cool scene from volume 4, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, when Scott "levels up" after telling Ramona he loves her, giving him the power he needs to defeat that book's evil ex.

Frequent scenes like this one cause me to squeal violently while reading it. Scott's hapless charm, classic video game-centric life style (he's in a band called Sex Bob-Bomb), and tendency to come out on top despite himself make him an uplifting and wonderful comic book everyman. Scott Pilgrim is my hero. I am very invested in his "precious little life." You should be too. For those of you who don't want to commit to the eleven dollar purchase of the first volume without a taste first you can check out the first 49 pages of the 168 page volume (as well as previews of the rest of the series) online on the previews section of the official Scott Pilgrim website.

However, there is a downside to getting entangled in the ways of Scott Pilgrim. While there are five volumes on the market right now, the sixth WILL NOT COME OUT TILL SOMETIME NEXT YEAR!!!1111 XO The tyranny of Scott Pilgrim is that volume 5 ends with quite the cliffhanger and I'm shaking in my comfy work chair to know what's going to happen to my main man. So, that kind of sucks.

That being said, I would still recommend jumping on the Scott Pilgrim train right now, because it has been optioned for a live action film starring Michael Cera and Lis tells me TIME magazine has picked it up. So, if you wanna stay cool, you better read Scott Pilgrim now, rather than later. ;P

Anyway, that's all.

Peace and Freedom,

Will

PS -- See you at the comic book store.

A juvenile survey meme of my own creation (plz, pass it forward)

2009-07-08T09:33:00.005-04:00

Hi team, Will here. This is part two is my suite of two personal posts. Whereas the first dealt with what I've been doing over the past couple of weeks, this one is a juvenile survey meme I'm making up as I go along, concocted as means to introduce myself better to my new English readers (there might be like what, 3 of you?).

Anywho...

VITAL STATS

Name: (Big Daddy) Will "the Thrill" Emmons
Alias(es): the Cowboy Will, Dad 2
Usual Base of Operations: Dale Outpost 1. Richmond, Kentucky. Space Sector 2814.
Affiliation(s): Diversity Friends Kentucky Taskforce, Bro Suite, Team Pony
Frequent Allies: Reese, Stephan the Mysterious Dreamer, Norgan Files, Jorge Marcos Aguabota, Everett, Josh, LaserPanda, Raquel, Amanda the Wagoneer
Frequent Adversaries: PrimaDonna, Officer Gnawbone, cats
Function: Political Hack, Comic Book Critic
First Appearance: 19.12.1986

PREFERENCES AND HABITS

Current Favorites Songs:
"Tears Dry On Their Own" Amy Winehouse
"The Stoop" Little Jackie
"Green Light" John Legend feat. Andre 3000
"Build Me Up, Buttercup" The Foundations
"Me and Julio Down By The School Yard" Simon and Garfunkel

Favorite Album: Mabool by Orphaned Land

Things I'm reading right now:
Final Crisis Legion of 3 Worlds by Geoff Johns & George Perez
Black Panther back issues by Christopher Priest

Things I recently read:
Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery by Mat Johnson & Warren Pleece
Scott Pilgrim vols. 4 & 5 by Bryan Lee O'Malley
New X-Men back issues by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
Ghost Rider: Hell Bent and Heaven Bound by Jason Aaron

Things I should be reading right now:
The newspaper everyday
Black Noise by Tricia Rose
other stuff without pictures
I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

Recommended reading:
Wretched of the Earth
Icon
All Star Superman
Amazing Spider-Man post-Brand New Day

Last few movies I saw:
Black Godfather
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Fantasy Mission Force ('70s Jackie Chan flick)
Dick Tracy
Wonder Woman (animated)
Hulk vs. Thor/Hulk vs. Wolverine (animated)

Things I need to get it together on:
EDIT: Going to London to vist new best friends
Cleaning my room
Dressing more sharply
Sorting my comic book collection
Investigating graduate school
Making Reese blog more
Learning to cook

Things I should get into:
Perm press shirts
More hip hop

Preferences:
Blankets
Left-wing politics
Multicultural experiences
Weekly Superman books
Lazing and grazing
Comic book stores

Average nightly sleep: 5-6.5 hours

OKAY, that about covers it. Go forth and do the same!

I sold out

2009-07-07T10:41:00.001-04:00

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Morning Jam

2009-07-07T09:47:00.001-04:00

John Legend -- "Number One"

This song is so sleazy, but it embeds in the brain. So good.

Comics Round Up

2009-07-06T12:54:00.007-04:00

C'mon folks, I really need a better title for this...

Transformers Spotlight: Metroplex: My avid readers will remember that I was very excited for this one-shot to come out, but it seems as though the entirety of the Transformers franchise has decided that it is its job to let me down full-time, all the time. I hated this book for two reasons. Most importantly, the scripting left a lot to be desired. I don't know if IDW is just taking fanfic scripts off Lexicon or something, but the writing on these Spotlights has gone massively downhill since Simon Furman stopped writing them. Secondly, and this was truly soul-crushing, Metroplex appears on only 8 pages of the comic, two which are a 2-page pin up spread of Metroplex saying, "I. AM. METROPLEX." (Okay, I would put that up in my office.) The story is mostly about the Throttlebots, exciting bunch that they are, running from Sixshot. It was poorly written, boring, and I felt let down. The art was good though. Grade: C

Marvel Divas #1 of 4: I bought this book so I could write mean things about it, so I was a little surprised when it turned out to be one of my favorite things from this week's haul. It wasn't my fault for being confused. I was tricked by the offensive press release about how the book was targeted at "females" and the cheesecake cover and advertisements featuring word "FIERCE" which led me to believe that this book was going to treat women still more aggressively bad than they usually are in superhero comics.

A selection of weirdly disproportionate boobs from the cover.

Not to be forgotten: Hell Cat's boobs

However, in this instance, the sexist bark was a lot worse than the patriarchal bite. The story is about Hell Cat and her gal pals Black Cat and Captain Marvel (the black one) gommin' around, chatting about their relationship troubles. Rachelle is right, it doesn't serve well to compare this to Sex in the City. Let's just say its a woman-centric superhero-themed sitcom or something of the like and move on. There were great bits like Captain Marvel describing how Brother Voodoo flirts (below).

This comic was really good for me, because Scott Pilgrim has me craving more comedic romance books and Marvel Divas delivered in waves, despite the stupid name and cheesecake cover. This book loses a letter grade because of the sexist hullabaloo around, but it still rocks. Grade: B

Captain America Reborn #1 of 5: Captain America was actually shot by time bullets and has become unstuck in time!!! Am I the only one on the Internet that realizes that Ed Brubaker is ripping off Slaughterhouse V to explain Cap's coming resurrection? Brian Hytch's art is really solid, but I'm less than impressed with this book. Grade: B-

Uncanny X-Men #513: I have decided that I like this Utopia crossover because it is super-powered, soap operatic activist porn. If you are into super-powered, soap operatic activist porn and like to watch Cyclops doing back flips and being the man, you should be reading Uncanny and Dark Avengers right now. Grade: A-

Green Lantern Corps #38: This was the best comic I read this week and it reminded me of something that my 102 page undergraduate thesis about John Stewart had made me forget, namely that I really like Kyle Rayner. Kyle Rayner was my Green Lantern growing up in the 1990s and Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason did right by him last week.

Following a massive break out of Sinestro Corps prisoners from the Sciencells on Oa, the Guardians of the Universe order the Alpha Lanterns to execute all the unarmed prisoners. My main man Kyle and the man whose growing on me Guy hop quick to the scene to confront the blue bastards and their robo-enforcers. Guy, whose been jerked around by the Guardians for decades, resigns himself to fighting the fight another day, but anti-death penalty, liberal Kyle does not:

I love this panel by Gleason. Kyle and his stubble are like, "Hold up." Then he does this beautiful thing:

You can almost see his face shake as he realizes the implications of what's going down, but he still stands firm with the Guardians. That's good ol', Kyle, he's idealistic and little bit afraid but he certainly has the ability to overcome great fear and he always sticks to his guns. I hope he has a big role in Blackest Night, which looks like its going to be where its at this summer if this issue Green Lantern Corps is any indication. Grade: A+

I also picked up: Batman and Robin #2, Fantastic Four #568, and Cable #16. They were all good. I was sad that no Superman books came out. They've really become a high point of my week.

Fight! Super Life Robots Will Update

2009-07-06T11:40:00.003-04:00

Hi all, Will here. This will be the first in a series of two personal updates that will serve to excuse my flakiness about blogging for the past week and better introduce myself to the scads of twee English readers that I'll have accrued after the events of this past weekend. In this update, I'll be talking about what I've been doing for the past couple weeks. If you're just hear to read about my never-ending love for Hawkworld, you can safely skip over this post.

Two weeks ago:

* Best male friend get married to long term GF. Functionally speaking, this is not a superhuge change for me, but is still emotionally stressful. The wedding party and after party are really fun.

* Reese returns to Central Kentucky. Joy.

* Best female friend is getting married in two weeks and moving to the UK. Holy shit.

One week ago:

* Go to New England for a job interview. Am told that I needed to work for the PIRGs instead. This is a let down which makes me consider the possibility of hopping ship from real life into grad school more quickly than originally planned.

* Kick it with Providence homies. Quite nice.

Wednesday:

* Hang out in Lexington with Reese. Buy an Amy Winehouse CD.

* Talk to Tony @ Collectibles, Etc. for a long time and ask him way too many questions about running a comics shop. He's starting a blog soon, I'll post a link.

* Best female friend is getting married on Saturday. Shit.

Thursday:

* Begin wonderful process of chauferring best friend's fiancee and new twee English best friends who have come in for the wedding around. Eat Mexican food. Go to pub.

Friday:

* Get off work to take English people to biblical minigolf.

* Rehearsal dinner. Shit. Shit. Shit.

Saturday:

* Best friend's wedding. Cry violently with her college friends in the early afternoon. A beautiful wedding followed by a rocking party at the sister of the bride's house. Lots of BritPop. A fully clothed Korean jumps into the swimming pool.

* Bride's brother-in-law fires a gun into air and throws a hand grenade to frighten the pansy Brits on this, our most important of anti-British holidays.

* A rocking, sketchy after party at the Glyndon Hotel on Main St. We fit 35 people in one of those little rooms.

Sunday:

* Track down cellphones of partygoers lost in drunken revelry with Reese and Byungmin.

* More chauferring new best friends.

* New English best friends leaving country. Cry violently.

* Best friend is leaving country forever v soon. Cry even more violently.

Monday:

* Blog.

* Secretly get a twitter.

....so as you can see, I've been quite busy with crying violently and chauffering my new best friends around. But now that that's all taken care of, I can get on with becoming a superstar blogger. What what!

My next personal entry will be a childish meme survey. Look forward to it!