Arriving 8/24/2011

It is the last week of the "old" DCU! See it all below the jump! ACTION COMICS #904 (DOOMSDAY) AMERICAN VAMPIRE #18 ANNE RICE SERVANT OF THE BONES #1 (OF 6) ARCHIE #624 ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #8 ASTONISHING X-MEN #41 BART SIMPSON COMICS #62 BATMAN ARKHAM CITY #5 (OF 5) BATMAN GATES OF GOTHAM #5 (OF 5) BATMAN INCORPORATED #8 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #5 (RES) BETTY & VERONICA #255 BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING #3 (OF 3) CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY #621 CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #63 CHEW #20 CRAWL TO ME #2 (OF 4) CRITICAL MILLENNIUM #4 (OF 4) DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE #13 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #3 DC COMICS PRESENTS JLA HEAVENS LADDER #1 DC RETROACTIVE GREEN LANTERN THE 90S #1 DC RETROACTIVE JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA THE 90S #1 DC RETROACTIVE SUPERMAN THE 90S #1 DEADPOOL #42 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DRIZZT #1 (OF 5) DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS #10 FEAR ITSELF YOUTH IN REVOLT #4 (OF 6) FEAR FF #8 FLASHPOINT HAL JORDAN #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT KID FLASH LOST #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT LOIS LANE AND THE RESISTANCE #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT PROJECT SUPERMAN #3 (OF 3) GEARS OF WAR #19 GODZILLA KINGDOM OF MONSTERS #6 GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #26 GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES #2 GREEN ARROW #15 GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS #13 GREEN LANTERN MOVIE PREQUEL SINESTRO #1 INCORRUPTIBLE #21 INTREPIDS #6 IRON AGE OMEGA #1 JOHN BYRNE NEXT MEN #9 JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #54 KEVIN SMITH BIONIC MAN #1 KICK-ASS 2 #3 KILL SHAKESPEARE #12 (OF 12) KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #177 (NOTE PRICE) MARKSMEN #2 (OF 6) MYSTERY MEN #4 (OF 5) NETHERWORLD #3 (OF 5) NEW MUTANTS #30 FEAR NORTHLANDERS #43 PUNISHER #2 SPIDER-MAN #17 SPONTANEOUS #3 STAR WARS JEDI DARK SIDE #4 SUPERMAN BEYOND #0 TEEN TITANS #100 (NOTE PRICE) TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #1 THOR HEAVEN AND EARTH #3 (OF 4) ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #1 UNCANNY X-FORCE #13 WAREHOUSE 13 #1 WOLVERINE #14 WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS #9 WONDER WOMAN #614 X-MEN #16 X-MEN LEGACY #254 XOMBI #6 YOUNG JUSTICE #7

Books / Mags / Stuff 20TH CENTURY EIGHTBALL TP NEW PTG ARSENIC LULLABY DEVILS DECADE TP BATMAN UNDER THE RED HOOD TP BLACKJACKED & PISTOL WHIPPED CRIME DOES NOT PAY PRIMER BOUNCER ONE ARMED GUNSLINGER HC BPRD PLAGUE OF FROGS HC VOL 02 CAPTAIN AMERICA PRISONER OF WAR PREM HC CARNAGE HC FAMILY FEUD CTHULHU TALES OMNIBUS DELIRIUM TP DC UNIVERSE LEGACIES HC DRAWING POWER COMPENDIUM OF CARTOON ADVERTISING SC DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DARK SUN HC VOL 01 ECHOES HC VOL 01 ESPERANZA LOVE & ROCKETS BOOK SC FF BY JONATHAN HICKMAN PREM HC VOL 01 ACUNA DM VAR ED FOLLOWING CEREBUS #12 GRIMJACK OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60 DAYS OR LESS TP INFINITE KUNG FU GN INSANELY AWESOME MAD TP JOHN LORD JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #312 MAD MAGAZINE #511 MALINKY ROBOT COLL STORIES & OTHER BITS TP MARINEMAN A MATTER OF LIFE & DEPTH TP MODESTY BLAISE TP VOL 20 MILLION DOLLAR GAME NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 16 OKIE DOKIE DONUTS OPEN FOR BUSINESS HC PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA GN PIRATE PENGUIN VS NINJA CHICKEN HC VOL 01 SERENITY HC VOL 02 BETTER DAYS & OTHER STORIES SHADOWLAND THUNDERBOLTS TP SHADOWLAND TP SILVER SURFER TP DEVOLUTION STAR TREK MAGAZINE #36 NEWSSTAND ED SUPERGIRL BIZARROGIRL TP TEAM UPS OF THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD TP TENJO TENGE GN VOL 02 TOMARTS ACTION FIGURE DIGEST #198-199 DOUBLE ISSUE X-MEN LEGACY COLLISION TP

What looks good to YOU?

-B

One thing I'd like to say, that most of you probably can safely ignore

Generally speaking when there's a business model that is about one party introducing another to a third, say... Matchmaking, or Headhunting or things like that, that facilitation nets hundreds if not thousands of dollars per client. The starting price in the digital model offered at the moment seems to be something like 15 cents.

I can't see how any retailer, in any industry, under any model could possibly accept any deal where they didn't keep proprietary control of data/customer/whatever. It sure as heck didn't work when Borders handed all of their business off over to Amazon for fulfillment. How long does it take the customer to think "but, wait, why do I need Borders in this transaction in the first place?" Sure, there is going to be some teeny tiny percentage of people who will reward you for a prior loyal relationship, but that's not a realistically tenable business model for the future, right?

It's weird, there's this large part of me which would love to embrace digital comics with both arms -- I think it would be a perfect fit for this website, in particular, under certain conditions, but those do not appear to be the circumstances we're actually being asked to live with.

Working retail is as much about curation, and knowledge about, and core enthusiasm FOR the product as it is about having the selection of product in the first place. And I think there's value in that, true value. I would, of course!

-B

"I'm the Kind of Father Who Takes His Son To See Zorro Three Times In One Week!", Not Comics - Batman LIVE!

Me and my spawn went and took a look at:

Yup, gonna ramble on about it! Apparently if you are a bit of a strange duck whose only notable feature to your relatives is that you still read comics sometimes you get weird Christmas presents. Last Christmas I received two tickets to BATMAN LIVE and last Sunday I took my 5-year old heir to see what all that was about. This was pretty exciting because I don’t get out much and it didn't cost me anything. Well, it cost me a hair under £2 for a bottle of water which was all I could stretch to. Judging by the prices while Batman was fighting fake crime on the stage the real crime was taking place at the concession stand. Ho ho! Ba-da-bing!

I suppose I should clear up what BATMAN LIVE is; I thought it was going to be a musical, but it isn't. So no show-tunes to sing in the car on the way home I’m afraid. Yes, I realise BATMAN LIVE is yet another alternate media revenue stream for a DC IP and thus a money maker for a large corporation but since I had The Boy with me I decided to give my inner cynic the night off. Entertain me, I thought and we'll be okay.

Well BATMAN LIVE entertained me and it was better than okay. What it is, I guess, is an “experience”. And you know what, it certainly was. The emphasis is on spectacle rather than sense and, yeah, some of it is pretty spectacular. It's largely a procession of set pieces strung together but since these are all pretty hectic, vibrant and dazzling that kind of works out okay. If you were expecting Henrik Ibsen you'll be bit disenchanted to say the least.  Apparently the story is by Geoff Johns, and Geoff Johns is the kind of adult who when questioned about BATMAN LIVE emits this kind of beige drone:

'…he’s an orphan. He’s experienced something that all of us can relate to – loss – that’s just a part of being alive and being a human.’

I like to picture Geoff Johns saying all that while wearing one of those baseball caps with a beer can on each side, the kind with a straw the goes from each can down past the peak into the wearer’s mouth. Maybe waving one of those big foam hands as well. But that’s how I like to picture him most of the time. So, instructed to pump up the proles for the multi-million dollar extravaganza Geoff Johns basically gives with the equivalent of:

"Yore gonna lhu-arn abaht lawsss!"

I guess that explains why a children's entertainment chooses to open with the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents and then, almost immediately, with the death of Dick Grayson’s parents. That sure is a lot of tragic orphaning to front load your spectacle with. Still, that's the nature of the material I guess and kids kind of like that morbid fantasy about losing their parents and growing up to be as awesome as Batman or robin. It's mythic or something. Except for The Boy, who wuvs me very much and wouldn't ever want anything to happen to his dear old Dad! Doncha! Lemme chuch your cheekies! No, you can't have any sweets, what am I made of money!

After that it's pretty much all about Robin discovering his new guardian is Batman, donning the mantle of Robin and learning the difference between revenge and justice. Somewhere in there all Batman's rogues decide to gang up on Batman (because they don't like him, is why). That's pretty much your plot, oh yeah, and Robin teaches Batman to unclench enough to give Catwoman a Batkiss. Boilerplate stuff really. Nice and simple structure on which BATMAN LIVE hangs all the real reasons you went: the spectacle. There's illusions (box, lady, swords, etc.), dance routines (I liked the Berkley-esque nightclub hoops one), explosions (loud, startling), wire-fu (yes, you can see the wires. It's still impressive), trapeze artistry (that bit was really neat) and just a whole bunch of entertaining antics.

For comic fans there are numerous shout outs to the papery origins, name-checks for Julie Madison, a cop called Montoya but the finest of all these is a physical  call back to that Carmine Infantino Detective Comics Cover (the one with the house shaped like the Joker’s head: #365). This huge thing rolls out onto the stage and there are all these parts of it undulating in an unnatural way and you suddenly realise that the  hair and teeth are actually composed of performers. That's quite a remarkable moment so I remarked on it. The pop surrealism of the early comics is evoked with such moments as a security guard patrolling a bank which comes up to his shins and Harley and Catwoman colluding atop a miniature prison. The part with the giant table and chair was a bit puzzling but I liked the wacky goofiness of the image.

The main action unfolds on a (apparently) 100ft-wide, 60ft-deep performance area with a video wall at one end. It’s an odd set up which means the action has to unfold in a strangely constricted space. To the credit of the crew the area is used well allowing the depth to give some scale to the set pieces, scale which would probably be lacking in a more trad wider-than-it-is-deep stage. You can see from my use of technical terms that I’m about as well versed in theatre as I am in Monster Truck Racing, but, y’know, stick with me. I might have a breakdown and start hollering about Marvel’s treatment of Jack Kirby while rubbing mash potato into my face.

Jack Kirby - He Never Gave Up On Us.

Anyway this peculiar arrangement sometimes means one person stands quite a distance away from the other and the resulting conversation looks like two people reluctantly saying their drunken goodbyes in a pub car park come last orders. Most of the time though it’s okay. After all when someone fires a rocket launcher at a Joker balloon, which they do, I guess you need a bit of distance between the two. It also also enables the crafty misdirection of the audience's  gaze when characters have to go off-stage. Very clever.

Like I said at one end there's this big video screen and I guess this is the big selling point as it is more technologically advanced than real people moving about and doing stuff. Sometimes the screen shows comic book panels with art in that modern style which is okay but marred by random pen lines.

Mostly though it is used to illustrate scene transitions with a POV travelling down CGI streets or showing whatever techno-magic Bruce Wayne is making the Bat-Puter do. It's nice and all but I was rather more concerned about what the humans were up to. Because I enjoy seeing people doing this kind of thing. Every night on the stage (actually I think they were doing three shows a day) doing the same thing time after time, getting it right without going slowly insane. It's the kind of old timey awesome I like. What with the way things are going this kind of exhibition of physical artistry probably won't be long for the world. Mark me, in 20 years the only things people will pay to watch other people do are sports and *&%$ing. And that's only because *&%$ing will be a sport by then.

So, I was mostly watching the people. Now, BATMAN LIVE is starting its run in the UK before heading State-side in 2012 because they want it to be ship shape for the folks back home. This means we get to see it first and we get to see it with little touches like Alfred’s mic kicking in a beat after he starts talking (but he was unflappably in character and carried on regardless. Respect to John Conroy!) and a dancing waiter butter fingering a tray of glasses during some nightclub choreography. Fella made a nice recovery though and I’m sure no one noticed. And if they did they wouldn't mention it because it would be churlish. Actually I’m okay with stuff like that, it’s very human and in an odd way just makes the whole thing seem more genuine.

(I had to look up the cast so I guess some of these names may be incorrect due to the tendency of actors to be injured/wake up in the Shetland Isles stinking of drink 5 minutes before the curtain rises in Sheffield/get a better part in a sit-com etc. So I apologise for any inaccuracies here.)

Everybody on the stage was pretty impressive at a base level with lovely clear diction, emotions effectively communicated, hitting their marks and all that stuff that looks easy and gets taken for granted but isn't and shouldn't. So I didn't. Hey, when I was a nipper I was once in a musical production of that biblical Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego in the fiery furnace story and I was on stage for about 5 minutes and out back of the Civic Hall chucking my guts up for another 40. So, trust me, I have nothing but admiration for everybody up there from Batman to the people dressed as day-glo clowns hitting Batman with sticks. I thought everyone was simply marvellous, darling!

"Biff! Pow! The Bible's not just for kids, anymore!"

Because of the pace most of the thesps didn't get a lot to work with (even Batman!) but those that did knew what they were doing. Mark Frost playing the Joker seemed to be channelling John Lithgow so that was pretty great. He wasn't scary as such but he was certainly exuberant and he had more presence than a kid at Christmas. Alex Gianni played both Commissioner Gordon/ The Penguin and was neat enough as the latter but as the former he was pretty grizzled and great. John Conroy essayed a nice Alfred, one at once starchy but affable with it. Ah, but Emma Clifford as Catwoman was the stand out performance and brought feline dignity, a measure of self conflict and, yes, zest to a character that is often represented in the fan-mind as a pair of burglarising boobs. Jolly good show, everybody!

I would also like to take this opportunity to proffer, on the behalf of  every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom, apologies to the cast and crew of BATMAN LIVE for what probably appeared to be a subdued response from the British audience I sat amongst. Judging from the folk around me the show went down a storm it’s just that we aren't a demonstrative people. We also, it seems, aren't terribly good at picking up on the cues built into the show for applause.

"No, really, we were clapping on the inside!"

My son thought it was "AWESOME SAUCE!" but that isn't on the SavCrit scale so I’ll say the whole shebang from soup to nuts was VERY GOOD! Except for Catwoman who was EXCELLENT! Take a bow, Emma Clifford! Can’t you hear them. They’re cheering for you! Well, they would be if British people ever deigned to do such a thing.

BATMAN LIVE, I thank you and my son thanks you also.

Cheers and thanks to each and everyone of you involved in the production!

Wait, What? Ep. 52.2: Jerks, Fighters, and Jus' Folks

I admit it. I love "Our Valued Customers" even though it caters to the worst stereotypes about comic store customers. (Although I had my share of crazy people stories when I worked the counter at CE, none of them ever seemed quite as bad as what apparently walks into Mr. Tim's store on a weekly basis -- and honestly, most of the crazy people we had were "it's San Francisco and there are mentally ill people on the streets" crazy as opposed to "I must talk to you about Spider-Man so hard spittle is always flying off my lips" crazy.)

In any event, none of this is especially relevant to the conclusion to Episode 52 of our podcast, although it might be pretty easy for you to imagine Graeme or I coming off like this guy as we discuss Marvel and what might happen to the direct market in 2012;   Chris Roberson's Superman, recommendations for crazy silver-age DC stories, NuMarvel, comic book movies, Bendis and Ultimate Fallout, New Dark Avengers, Frank Darabont and Walking Dead, and much, much more, thanks to our listeners, colleagues, and fine friends who follow us on Twitter.  Itunes should have the episode all queued up for you, or alternately, you can listen to us gab about all of the above here:

Wait, What? Ep. 52.2: Jerks, Fighters and Jus\' Folks

We hope you enjoy and as always, thanks for listening!

Prose is a Five-Letter Word

(that title somehow made sense in my head) Like I mentioned the other day, between school restarting, working on our September DC relaunch plans, a possible store remodel, us repainting the downstairs at our house, and what seems like 47 other "big" things happening at once, I've had a less time for reading comics. It also doesn't help that giant chunks of prose have been chucked at my head recently as well!

So, below the cut, some not-comics reading, even if it is related-to-comics!

THE COMICS JOURNAL #301: I really did miss TCJ. The deeply in-depth interviews, the in-depth criticism, and really more than anything else, the investigative reporting. We don't have anything like that kind of what I think of as shoe leather reporting -- long phone calls, attempts to look at issues from multiple sides, designed to examine and protect our field, rather than to score headlines in and of itself. Rich Johnston has taken over a tremendous amount of that role, but Rich comes from the Gossip Columnist angle, rather than Paper Of Record angle, so he runs a lot of shit that's sensational for it's own sake, and, far too often that's wildly wrong or misinformed.

Heidi is mostly our Social Secretary, and the "news sites" (Robot 6, CBR, Comics Alliance, etc.) seem more interested in entertaining or opinionating then in really getting to the heart of news (which is fine -- those are consumer entertainment sites, really).

I think Spurgeon (and, let me take a second to link you to his astonishing piece on his health problems if you haven't already read it -- all of the Savage Critics wish Tom very very well health indeed!) is the closest we have to Advocacy journalism, any longer, but I'd think even he'd admit he seldom uses Shoe Leather much in the (excellent!) work that he does.

I just sometimes daydream about what could have been if the Journal's News mandate had continued to this day -- I would have loved to read their in-depth coverage of, say, the Disney deal... or could you imagine what Michael Dean might have been able to get out of the DC reboot? Yeah, woulda been nice.

Damn, but I got off on a tangent there, didn't I?

ANYway, like the Meatloaf song sez, two outta three ain't so bad, as the Journal returns in a new bricklike bookshelf format (seriously, this thing has like 600 pages!), anchored by a massive Robert Crumb interview, and a whole freakin' lot of really strong criticism. I most especially liked the Cerebus retrospective by Tim Krieder. Cerebus is one of those works that I think is 90% genius, but the bits that aren't are really really hard. It was fascinating to see Krieder go through in a few weeks, the emotional range that some of us sustained for 25 years! I need to read Cerebus again, huh?

(I also miss the Cerebus Diablog where they petered out only by #11! Come back Laura, come back Leigh! You didn't even start getting to the GOOD issues!)

Wow, digressive much?

Right, so, Journal, yes! Great great great read! I'd still love to see it be maybe quarterly in the 200 page range -- there's a lot of Interviews that could be happening, and a lot of posterity that needs to be captured -- but this is way better than nothing. VERY GOOD

One last digression, which is actually kind of properly related. As some of you may know, Amazon really erred somehow with TCJ #301, and they offered preorders at a price that was about 20% BELOW their (and my!) wholesale price. Fantagraphics assures me THEY didn't offer Amazon any kind of special deal or promotion, so that was all on Amazon itself.

Whatever, I'm not dumb, I ordered my copies from Amazon, instead of from Diamond, and chose the free (very very slow) shipping option.

We had our copies two weeks ago.

Diamond, as far as I can tell, STILL has not distributed TCJ #301 to the West Coast.

So cheaper than Diamond by 20%, AND I received it weeks earlier, go figure!

A DANCE OF DRAGONS: I've been a fan of George RR Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" long before "Game of Thrones" aired on HBO, and I really really really wonder what they're going to do when they start getting to the parts of the book that simply CAN'T be filmed (or faked!) on the budget they'll have. As is often (but not always) the case, as good as the adaptation is (and it's really swell!), the original material is much much much better.

We've been waiting a really long time for this, book five, because of what Martin termed "the meereenese knot", where a specific character find themselves in a specific place and simply wasn't able to leave because of the nature of the character themselves.

To an extent, you can't force plot on characters - plot should always stem FROM the characters, and some writers say that strong characters "write themselves". I believe this to be true, especially in this case. This is the first one of these books where I could really see the scaffolding (surrounding Meereen). It's not just the specific character, but everyone and everything related to it. Most of the Meereen stuff, I hate to say it, even some of the bits that I LIKED (Tyrion, in particular, takes the sharpest loss he has so far on a particular ride), probably should have been chucked... but they COULDN'T be because of what happened previously, and how a strong character with a strong POV simply wouldn't let it.

The problem is solved... or, at least, is set upon the path to probably being solved, and the solution is non-terrible, but it's still a little far from good to this reader. It does make for fascinating reading, however, playing "look for the welds".

On the other hand, all of the stuff that WASN'T tied in the Knot? Awesome awesome material -- maybe some of the strongest yet. In super particular, I nearly shuddered with joy when a certain sibling showed up about halfway through the book, and this one is rapidly becoming my favorite character.

Other than the Knot (which isn't GRRM's fault, per se), I was fairly outraged that he introduced a new claimant to the throne, one, who appears is legitimate, and not just a feint of some kind. I am firmly of the mind that it is far far far too late to be doing so, given the length of the narrative (and the idea that we're finished in just two more books). It's only like three chapters worth, but I was profoundly uneasy reading those, thinking "not FAIR!"

I think that GRRM is more likely to feint about who the leads really are, and what the battle and stakes even are in the first place (I largely think that the central question of who will sit on Westeros' throne will be mostly irrelevant in another thousand pages or so), just like the big switch at the end of "Game of Thrones" itself.

Overall I want to give A DANCE WITH DRAGONS a mild GOOD, but there were absolutely parts that I thought were EXCELLENT.

(how was that for spoiler free, huh?)

As always, what did YOU think?

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 52.1: Dream Team Supreme

The time has come again for us to answer questions from listeners who follow Graeme and myself on Twitter. It's always a struggle for Graeme and I to stay on topic long enough to answer everyone's questions, and the struggle here hits near-epic proportions.

For example, I won't tell you the question, but here's one of my answers:

• Jim Starlin, Shade the Changing Man
• Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden, Green Lantern
• Steve Gerber with whoever he wants (though it should be Curt Swan), Superman
• Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell, Wonder Woman
• Len Wein/Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, The Demon
• Michael Fleisher and John Buscema, Claw the Unconquered
• Steve Englehart and Gil Kane, The Flash
• Howard Chaykin, Jonny Double
• Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum/John Byrne, Legion of Super-Heroes
• Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Justice League of America
• Steve Ditko, The Creeper or anything he wants, The Phantom Stranger
• Roy Thomas and C.C. Beck, Shazam!
• Archie Goodwin and Herb Trimpe, Sgt. Rock
• Michael Fleisher and Don Heck, Jonah Hex
• Gerry Conway and George Perez, the Brave and the Bold
• Peter B. Gillis and Jim Steranko, Batman
• Denny O’Neil and Barry Windsor-Smith, Detective Comics

Also covered: waffles, waffles, and more waffles; Chad Nevett's Blogathon (stop by, check it out, and donate!); our pitches for DC; Mystic and Snark; Michael Fleisher's career after comics; favorite Batman tales; Captain America and much more--with more to come.

You should be able to find it on iTunes by now, but you can also listen to us here on this fine website:

Wait, What? Ep. 52.1: Dream Team Supreme

As always, we hope to have the next installment ready for you very soon, and we thank you for listening!

Arriving 8/17/11

Sorry for the silence from me this week -- Ben starts school this morning (3rd grade, nutty!), we're repainting the house, I've been negotiating for new racks for the store, planning our ad campaign for the 52 relaunch, etc etc etc... just crazy swamped. HOPEFULLY something this week, but more likely next week from me.... This week's books below the cut!  

ALL NIGHTER #3 (OF 5) ARCHIE & FRIENDS #157 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #221 AVENGERS #16 FEAR AVENGERS ACADEMY #18 FEAR BATMAN #713 BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #522 FEAR BOYS BUTCHER BAKER CANDLESTICKMAKER #2 CAPTAIN AMERICA #2 CAPTAIN AMERICA CORPS #3 (OF 5) CONAN ROAD OF KINGS #7 (OF 7) CYCLOPS #6 DAMAGED #1 (OF 6) DAREDEVIL #2 DARKWING DUCK #15 DC COMICS PRESENTS TEEN TITANS #1 DC RETROACTIVE BATMAN THE 90S #1 DC RETROACTIVE THE FLASH THE 90S #1 DC RETROACTIVE WONDER WOMAN THE 90S #1 DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #14 DEADLANDS DEATH WAS SILENT ONE SHOT DMZ #68 FABLES #108 FEAR ITSELF DEADPOOL #3 (OF 3) FEAR FEAR ITSELF FEARSOME FOUR #3 (OF 4) FEAR FEAR ITSELF HOME FRONT #5 (OF 7) FEAR FLASHPOINT ABIN SUR THE GREEN LANTERN #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT LEGION OF DOOM #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT THE OUTSIDER #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT WONDER WOMAN AND THE FURIES #3 (OF 3) GENERATION HOPE #10 SCHISM GLADSTONES SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS #4 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #63 HELLBLAZER #282 HULK #39 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #507 FEAR JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #626 FEAR JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #60 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #16 MARVEL UNIVERSE VS WOLVERINE #3 (OF 4) ONE #5 (OF 10) POWER GIRL #27 SERGIO ARAGONES FUNNIES #2 SIMPSONS COMICS #181 SONIC UNIVERSE #31 SPIDER-ISLAND AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #1 (OF 3) SPI STAN LEE SOLDIER ZERO #11 STAR WARS KNIGHT ERRANT DELUGE #1 (OF 5) STUFF OF LEGEND JESTERS TALE #1 (OF 4) SUPERBOY #11 SUPERGIRL #67 SUPERMAN BATMAN #87 THUNDERBOLTS #162 FEAR TINY TITANS #43 TITANS #38 ULTIMATE COMICS FALLOUT #6 (OF 6) DOSM UNCANNY X-MEN #542 FEAR VENOM #6 SPI WALKING DEAD #88 WOLVERINE AND BLACK CAT CLAWS 2 #2 (OF 3) X-FACTOR #224 X-MEN SCHISM #3 (OF 5) ZATANNA #16

Books / Mags / Stuff 99 DAYS HC (RES) BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 01 NEW WORLD BREED COL VOL 02 BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES TP COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 16 1981-1982 ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 02 FATAL DISEASES REVISED & EXPANDED ED FABLES DELUXE EDITION HC VOL 03 FANTASTIC FOUR BY WAID & WIERINGO ULT COLL TP BOOK 02 FOGTOWN TP HALCYON TP HELLBLAZER BLOODY CARNATIONS TP ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #34 INVINCIBLE COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN TP VOL 06 STARK RESILIENT BOOK 2 LITTLE NOTHINGS GN VOL 04 MY SHADOW IN THE DISTANCE MARVEL ADV SPIDER-MAN TP NEIGHBORHOOD DIGEST NEW AVENGERS BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS PREM HC VOL 02 SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS HC SETTING STANDARD ALEX TOTH GN (RES) SUPERMAN BATMAN NIGHT AND DAY TP TALES OF THE BATMAN GENE COLAN HC VOL 01 TICK COMPLETE EDLUND TP NEW ED TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 (RES) TRANSMETROPOLITAN TP VOL 10 ONE MORE TIME NEW ED WE 3 DELUXE EDITION HC X-MEN CURSE OF MUTANTS TP

What looks good to YOU?

-B

"I am one of those losers that doesn't have a car." Comics! Read 'em with your eyes!

While I was waiting for The Boy With The Roast Beef Face to come back off holiday and restore order before the whole country turned into an indoor firework I read some comics. It's a Not Big Two Bonanza this week! Let's see what  creators unbound can give us, eh?

THE INFINITE VACATION #2 By Christian Ward(a), Nick Spencer(w) (Image, $3.50) Ever wanted to holiday in the life of an alternate you in an alternate reality? Well, now you can because there’s an App for that! But what if there was a murderer rapidly reducing the alternate yous between him and you? Got an App for that have you, pal? Thought not.

As high concepts go it’s pretty vertigo inducing I think you’ll agree. The real genius is tapping into that sexy tech gland in the brains of the young and yoking it together with the weird sense of inferiority these things evoke in the meat machines that consume them. Today’s tech is sexy tech but it’s also, maybe, dangerous tech and it’s this formless, and very human, anxiety that the core concept feeds upon. I think. Of course familiar elements are needed to ground the narrative sufficiently for readers to connect, so there’s a murder mystery providing propulsion and a romance with a mystery hot girl, paedo jokes etc.

Christian Ward’s art is inventive not only in layouts, which often hover on the border of confusion while admirably never crossing it, but also in his choice of colours. It’s well worth looking at is Christian Ward’s art. Refreshing would be the word there. Nick Spencer’s story rattles along at such a pace that while the series is clearly pleased with itself it never tips over into smugness and, crucially, the reader is never given chance to question any of it too deeply. Which is just as well. I had a few questions about stuff but that’s what happens when you show old people the future they want to know where the toilets are and where they can buy some crisps.

As inventively illustrated high concept entertainment goes this was VERY GOOD!

THE GOON #34 By Eric Powell (Dark Horse, $3.50) The Goon watches some sport, gets likkered up and has a fight. It's really, really pretty.

The Goon is Eric Powell’s comic. This means he can do whatever he dingdanged likes with it. If Eric Powell wants to waste several pages ineffectually taking the piss out of an transient media blip like Twilight then that’s what Eric Powell’s a-gonna do. If Eric Powell wants one of his characters to actually comment on what a waste of time said pages are then that’s what’s a-gonna happen. If Eric Powell wants the rest of the comic to be an extended fight scene punctuated by moments intended to be humorous and some cool images, guess what? That’s right.

Sounds pretty negligible and indeed it is but that’s not taking into account the art. Eric Powell’s art is gorgeous. Finished off in lovely washes it has a chunky cartoon quality rooted in realism that is a sweet treat for the eye. I’m a fair man, my heart still beats, so I’ll mitigate my opinion of this issue by saying that I have read Eric Powell’s BUZZARD and CHIMICHINGA! and both of those were better because both of those had an actual honest-to-goodness story. When you get art this good illustrating something of at least a little substance you get one ripe peach of a comic experience. The GOON #34 wasn’t such an experience but if Eric Powell wants to meticulously illustrate what is basically behind the bike sheds humour he’s certainly free to do so. Just like I’m free to say it’s OKAY!

USAGI YOJIMBO #139 By Stan Sakai (Dark Horse, $3.50) “Murder At The Inn” Part One.

Along with a disparate group of strangers the rabbit Ronin seeks shelter from a storm. When a murder is committed Usagi discovers that a nowhere is safe when strangers with strange motives are involved. The game is afoot! Or is it a-paw! Heh.

The peerless Stan Sakai has been working on Usagi Yojimbo since 1987. Despite its longevity it is a series rarely mentioned but when it is mentioned it is always with a large measure of respect. This is entirely fitting as through these many decades Mr Stan Sakai has pursued his peculiarly anthropomorphic vision with unfaltering commitment to his craft resulting in one of the most consistently entertaining and satisfying pamphlets to grace the racks. When he began Stan Sakai was already pretty great but as the years have passed he has quietly become a master. His art and storytelling have never taken any great leaps forward but rather have evolved slowly and surely towards his present level of subdued excellence.

I enjoy every issue of USAGI YOJIMBO for many reasons (I am particularly prone to staring at his cross hatching and I revel in the research he shares with us in the lettercol) but the principal reason is that Stan Sakai is content to bring good tales well told to the table. And there are still seats at the table for anyone who favours staunch excellence over empty bombast.

USAGI YOJIMBO#139 is pretty much like every issue of USAGI YOJIMBO in that it is EXCELLENT!

TRAILBLAZER (ONE-SHOT) By James Daily/Jimmy Palmiotti/Peter Palmiotti & Ken Branch (a), Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, Paul Mounts(c) and Bill Tortolini(l)(Image, $5.99)

The most awesome assassin in the world turns against his paymasters and is sent back to the Old West as part of a government witness relocation scheme. When the sins of the present follow him back he’ll have to accept his past if he’s to have any future!

 This thing has a hero who is a bad assed killing machine who hires his bad assed killing skills out to organised crime. It’s okay though because he is an orphan, gives most of his money to the orphanage, was raised by nuns, only kills members of organised crime cartels and probably sorts out his glass from his cardboard when he recycles. So, he’s an okay guy! No, no he’s not, he’s a self centred piece of moral detritus that can only be considered a hero by people who think morality is as quaint and outmoded as taking your hat off indoors. Hilariously this soil bucket whines on about how all the people he has ever cared about die when all the people he has ever cared about who we see die have quite clearly died because they associate with a narcissistic killer.

Anyone with any inner ethical life will surely be left wondering about how they can get the time wasted reading this thing back. I guess you’d have to build a time machine. Did I mention the time machine? Oh, tiny dancer, get this: the US Govt develops time travel and uses it to relocate witnesses in the Old West. If the U.S. Govt had developed time travel technology I think using it to relocate witnesses would be pretty far down the list of things they would use it for. This may be because I am a twisted misanthrope and thus inherently distrustful of governments and the uses to which they put technological advances but I think it is definitely due to the fact that this idea is mind bogglingly stupid. I spent more time deciding which socks to wear this morning than the creators of this thing spent considering the ramifications of this concept. (I went for the clean ones in the end.) The US Govt develops time travel and uses it to relocate witnesses in the Old West. I just wanted to write that down again so I could marvel at its almost total resistance to sense. I would have to be carved entirely from lard to countenance such a wilfully witless premise. Still, if you can buy that I guess you might buy this. I don’t and I wish I hadn’t.

But I’m not the intended audience. I am a comic book reader and this is not a comic although it presents itself as such. The intended audience for this is composed of deal makers in the TV and Movie industries. This is a sales pitch not a comic. From the “Papermovies” branding to the creator bios which read more like C.V.s all the way through to the perfunctory presentation of the thoroughly unoriginal (or original but cretinous) concepts. This is what you get when creators pander to the market. You get the equivalent to those leaflets window cleaners push through your letter box in times of recession. Those aren’t comics either.

I disliked this because I am British and fun is alien to me, true, but mostly because it wasn’t really a comic which made it AWFUL!

CRIMINAL MACABRE/THE GOON: WHEN FREAKS COLLIDE ONE-SHOT By Christopher Mitten(a), Steve Niles/Eric Powell(w), Michelle Madsen(c), Nate Piekos of Blambot(l) (Dark Horse, $3.99)

Maybe you like Eric Powell’s IP The Goon? In which case have you seen Steve Niles’ IP Criminal Macabre (Cal McDonald)? What if they had a fight before realising they had been tricked by the real enemy and then teamed up to boot the bad guy’s jacksie? Wouldn’t that be totally different to all the tights’n’fights comics that follow this strict formula?  It would be totally different! Well, the art is better at least. Would you like to buy more? Press here!

Kind of a “Here they are, hope ya like ‘em! Particularly hope ya like ‘em enough to buy more!” deal. Given all that The Goon comes off best here as he has slightly more presence thanks to having some blatant shtick than can be easily riffed on (outdated references, comical swearing and hitting things with a big wrench) whereas Cal McDonald is…there? Despite having plenty of room to do so, as it’s hardly heaving with plot and incident, the comic fails to impart much of an idea of either character.  That’s okay with The Goon who’s basically a lively cartoon and even if you don’t do much with him you’d have to do nothing at all with him for him to be totally unmemorable. To their credit the creators of this don’t do absolutely nothing with The Goon. It’s close, though but close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades, as The Goon might say.

This here Cal McDonald IP is…there? He does a little magic, does a little drugs (Ooooh, dangerous!) and has black hair. A bit like John Constantine in the same way that Panda Cola is like Coca Cola. On the basis of these pages Cal McDonald isn’t so much of a character as an IP waiting for SYFI to notice him. Regrettably studios only tend to shop for knock-offs if the original is successful. Cal McDonald curses you, Keanu Reeves! He damns your very eyes! Oh, on the last page Mike Mignola’s IP Hellboy turns up which seems an oddly cheap and desperate note on which to end but, hey, turns out this “one-shot” is “…to be continued!” so the only thing that’s actually ended is my interest. Probably not the outcome they were shooting for there.

So, yeah, this was just like a corporate comic and bored me quite a bit, that boredom beget irritation and then I just ran my mouth like a jackass so, y’know, on the whole I expected better but I got EH!

TIMEBELCH! By Hank Jeno (w/a) (Burning Streets, $4.99) What if you could change the course of History with kindness! What if History had other plans!

Barry Tupper is the best at what he does and what Barry Tupper does is Social Work. Despite this he is a pariah at Chistlewick Council due to his unorthodox and sexily rogue nature, which largely manifests in a tendency to deride managers as “paper fondlers” and tell clients that the IT system is a “shit counter”. On being given his third and final written warning (for using the work photocopier to print flyers for his local charity car boot sale) Barry Tupper is given a choice: Get a job in the private sector or go on a secret government mission from which he will never return.

Barry goes for the lesser of two evils and finds himself thrown through time back, back to Leonding, Austria in 1898 with one mission: make Hitler a nice man! Adept at gaining the confidence of fearful pensioners Barry has few problems in befriending the potential world immolating nutbag and commences to throw his weight behind Nuture in its eternal struggle with Nature. For the two men the next couple of decades pass in a montage of walks through russet leaves, heads thrown back with full throated laughter and beach volleyball. All seems well as Barry concentrates on distracting Hitler from the iconography of his local church, giving him painting tips, nudging him towards macramé rather than politics and encouraging the use of “How you doin’!” rather than “Heil!”.

Then one fateful day upon entering the café at which he and Hitler meet each morning Barry hears Hitler making an anti-Semitic remark to the waiter. Consumed by self-hatred at the extent of his failure Barry seizes the nearest butter knife. At the exact moment that Barry swings the butter knife in a fatal arc at Hitlers’ neck he realises Hitler was expressing his dislike of the breakfast juice provided. A beach volleyball rolls across some sand and just as it seems about to stop… SMASH CUT TO BLACK. Sad piano music.

Although TIMEBELCH is  written with all the subtlety and tact of a Marvel Event and is drawn by someone who has had every bone in his hands broken only to have them set all wrong I feel it is ripe for optioning by a major studio and thus EXCELLENT! Have your people call my people!

One of those comics wasn't real! Did you guess which?

Now I must go and stand at my window and look out at blasted England with old eyes fat with tears. Only joking, have a great weekend, everyone!

Craig Thompson @ CE on 9/28

It's a mid-afternoon signing (from 2-4), but we're shuddering with glee that we've got Craig Thompson coming to sign Habibi on September 28. You can find more information here!

Hope to see you there!

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 51.2: Nothing and All

What's that saying? "A day late and a dollar short?" The Early Bird Gets the Podcast Entry?" I don't know...something like that.

In any event, the rousing conclusion to Wait, What? Episode 51 is here with Graeme and myself talking X-Force #12, Captain America and Bucky #620, Witch Doctor #2, Walking Dead #87, Criminal: Last of the Innocent #2, Kirby Genesis #2, Dan Slott's Spider-Man and Paul Levitz's Legion of Super-Heroes, and -- believe it or not -- more.

Itunes? Why yes, it's there (or should be) but it is also very much here, ready to be listened to and perhaps even loved:

Wait, What? Ep. 51.2: Nothing and All

As always, we hope you enjoy it and appreciate your patronage!

Wait, What? Ep. 51.1: You and Me and USM

My hope is the days of iTunes drama is behind us and Wait, What? Ep. 51.1 has already begun a safe and steady trek to your listening device of choice, but if not and it leaves you hanging (as it did some of us for the better part of the week with our last episode), please feel free to listen to it here. It's got everything you could want in a comics podcast: Graeme McMillan! Miles Morales! Jack Kirby! Nick Spencer! Alan Moore! The library! (Oh, and also me and Marvel and Secret Avengers and legal wrangling as wrangled by two individuals utterly untrained in the art of said wrangling...):

Wait, What? Ep. 51.1: You and Me and USM

Pull up a chair and hunker down--the second installment should be around before you know it!  (Hopefully, on iTunes as it is under heaven...) Thanks for listening!

Arriving 8/10/11

Sweet sweet comical goodness! ALL NEW BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #10 ALL WINNERS SQUAD BAND OF HEROES #3 (OF 8) ALPHA FLIGHT #3 (OF 8) FEAR AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #667 SPI AMERICAN VAMPIRE SURVIVAL OT FITTEST #3 (OF 5) ANITA BLAKE CIRCUS OF DAMNED INGENUE #5 (OF 5) ARTIFACTS #9 (OF 13) BALTIMORE CURSE BELLS #1 BATGIRL #24 BATMAN 80 PAGE GIANT 2011 #1 BATMAN AND ROBIN #26 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #193 BIRDS OF PREY #15 BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #522 FEAR BLUE ESTATE #5 BOOSTER GOLD #47 (FLASHPOINT) BPRD HELL ON EARTH MONSTERS #2 (OF 2) BREED III #4 (OF 6) CRIMINAL LAST OF INNOCENT #3 (OF 4) DAKEN DARK WOLVERINE #12 DC RETROACTIVE GREEN LANTERN THE 80S #1 DC RETROACTIVE JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA THE 80S #1 DC RETROACTIVE SUPERMAN THE 80S #1 DEADPOOL #41 DETECTIVE COMICS #881 (NOTE PRICE) DOC SAVAGE #17 DOLLHOUSE EPITAPHS #2 (OF 5) FEAR ITSELF #5 (OF 7) FEAR FEAR ITSELF UNCANNY X-FORCE #2 (OF 3) FEAR FLASHPOINT CITIZEN COLD #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT EMPEROR AQUAMAN #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT FRANKENSTEIN CREATURES OF UNKNOWN #3 (OF 3) GHOST RIDER #2 FEAR GODZILLA GANGSTERS & GOLIATHS #3 (OF 5) GREEN HORNET YEAR ONE #11 HELLBOY THE FURY #3 (OF 3) INCREDIBLE HULKS #634 IRON AGE #3 (OF 3) JIM BUTCHER DRESDEN FILES FOOL MOON #3 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #8 LAST PHANTOM #8 LIFE WITH ARCHIE #12 MEGA MAN #4 SPAZ CVR MORNING GLORIES #11 NEW AVENGERS #15 FEAR NEW MUTANTS #29 FEAR PUNISHERMAX #16 RED ROBIN #26 RED WING #2 (OF 4) REED GUNTHER #3 SECRET HISTORY BOOK 16 SPAWN #210 (RES) SPIDER-ISLAND CLOAK AND DAGGER #1 (OF 3) SPI SPIDER-ISLAND DEADLY FOES #1 SPI SPIRIT #17 SPONGEBOB COMICS #4 STAN LEE STARBORN #9 STAND NIGHT HAS COME #1 (OF 6) STAR WARS INVASION REVELATIONS #2 (OF 5) STAR WARS OLD REPUBLIC #3 (OF 5) LOST SUNS SUPER HEROES #17 SUPREME POWER #3 (OF 4) TEEN TITANS #99 THUNDER AGENTS #10 ULTIMATE COMICS FALLOUT #5 (OF 6) DOSM UNWRITTEN #28 VENGEANCE #2 (OF 6) VERTIGO RESURRECTED JONNY DOUBLE #1 WAR GODDESS #0 WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS AFTERMATH #2 (OF 2) X-MEN #15 POINT ONE X-MEN LEGACY #253 YI SOON SHIN WARRIOR & DEFENDER #1 (OF 8)

Books / Mags / Stuff ALTER EGO #103 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS HC ARCHIES MAD HOUSE HC VOL 01 (NOTE PRICE) BACK ISSUE #50 BAD ISLAND GN BAD ISLAND HC BATMAN IMPOSTORS TP BILLY THE KID OLD TIMEY ODDITIES TP VOL 02 FIEND LONDON BLANKETS HC CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 21 BLOOD OF TITAN CROW SPECIAL ED TP DARK RAIN A NEW ORLEANS STORY SC DEADPOOL AM SPIDER-MAN HULK IDENTITY WARS PREM HC EDUARDO RISSO BORDERLINE TP VOL 04 FORMING HC G FAN #96 GUNNERKRIGG COURT HC VOL 03 INCREDIBLE HULKS DARK SON TP INFESTATION TP VOL 01 JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #57 KIDNAPPING KEVIN SMITH GN KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE TP VOL 32 MADAME XANADU TP VOL 04 EXTRA SENSORY MAGDALENA TP VOL 01 SHADOWLAND DAREDEVIL TP SHOWCASE PRESENTS TRIAL OF THE FLASH TP SITA DAUGHTER OF EARTH CAMPFIRE GN SPACE FAMILY ROBINSON ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 SPIDER-MAN FANTASTIC SPIDER-MAN PREM HC TERRY MOORES ECHO COMPLETE ED SC TEZUKAS BLACK JACK TP VOL 15 (RES)

What looks good to YOU?

-B

"I don't know about the cat." Comics! Sometimes they are a bit creepy!

Hey, I read some comics and then I wrote about them in a hot new style I like to call "cack-handed". If you aren't doing anything else this weekend, sugar rush, you might want to get your hands  all cacky with me?

THE IRON AGE FEATURING...AVENGERS

Lee Weeks/Tom Palmer and Ben Oliver (a), Christos N Gage and Rob Williams (w), Matt Hollingsworth and Veronica Gandini (c) and Jared K Fletcher(l)

THE IRON AGE FEATURING...FANTASTIC FOUR

Nick Dragotta, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema(a), Jen Van Meter and Elliott Kalan(w), Brad Simpson and John Kalisz(c) and Jared K Fletcher(l)

(MARVEL, $4.99 ea)

I recall the unrepentant Scot Mr. Graeme McMillan expressed puzzlement at this series’ very existence; not wishing to be outdone I expressed puzzlement at its presence in my shipment. You’ll note my LCS omitted the Alpha issue which just goes to prove that MARVEL did a bang-up job on marketing this thing. Anyway to recap for people who don’t listen to That American guy and That Scottish guy: this is a throwback series in which Tony Stark bounces back in time to meet an assortment of MARVEL characters with each issue really being two issues with the more sales friendly characters ballyhooed on the front.

The AVENGERS one was truly heartbreaking. I really felt for Tony Stark as he milled about his colleagues unable to warn them of the dreadful future which awaited them all. To look at each of those faces and know that they were aiding you in bringing about a witless future of incessant babbling and senseless plots must have been heartbreaking for him. Lee Weeks did the art and he’s totally awesome. Lee Weeks is to MARVEL as Jose Luis Garcia Lopez is to DC. If either company let either gentleman regularly adorn their pages both companies’ quality would be immediately improved by a scientifically calculated 65%. Which I know is a fact because I just made it up. But DC are content to have JL-GL drawing pictures for underoos and MARVEL just keep Lee Weeks in a box under the stairs or something. Amazing.

Well since your future comics make the scripting on The Suite Life of Zack And Cody look like Pinter, I think you'll probably envy the dead, Hank.

Illustration By Lee Weeks/Tom Palmer. Words and irony by Christos N. Gage

The Captain Britain one was okay and successfully captured the essence of '80s Britain by Veronica Gandini using a colour palette based on watery diarrhoea. I can’t remember what happened as I've slept since then but I think Cap was a bit of a fool and it was definitely set in Alan Moore’s excellent (you heard me Mr. Graeme McMillan!) Captain Britain run so that helped. Oh yeah, the British Army turned up to help save the day, so I guess this must have been one of the days when they weren't allegedly wearing unmarked police uniforms and kicking the tar out of striking miners. Not that they did that. That's how rumours start so watch that stuff. Jesus, Britain in the '80s. Airstrip One a-go-go. Nurse!

The FANTASTIC FOUR issue starts off with a Power Man and Iron Fist appearance on which Nick Dragotta does a really first rate job. Totally tip-top stuff with cracking storytelling and beezer body language. Thanks, Nick Dragotta! The Fantastic Four part is pleasantly silly with Johnny Storm fretting about growing up (Elliot Kalan means YOU!), Tonio and Stormy visiting a club where everyone dresses as superheroes (leading to a nicely icky Sue Storm joke), meeting Drunk Tony and facing off against Doctor Doom! Reliable Ron Frenz and Sturdy Sal Buscema provided the art which is both sturdy and reliable in a manner which far too few people appreciate.

Hey, I’m old so I quite enjoyed these issues largely because they possessed a plot, everyone spoke in a clear manner and they were just really entertaining all round. Maybe it had nothing to do with my failing mind and everything to do with craft/skill. There's a thought. Oh yeah, it didn't hurt that there were panels like this:

Who doesn't love panels like that? Tories!

(Illustration by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema. Words by Elliot Kalan.)

Of course due to recent developments I won't see how this series ends. (I believe this is called foreshadowing. C’mon and watch me now. Huhn!) Setting that aside for the nonce (for I am nothing if not a nonce) for the price of this series I could have sated the nostalgic within by purchasing a fat b/w volume of ESSENTIAL MARVEL TEAM-UP (Or ESSENTIAL MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, I’m more of a M T-I-O man myself. High five, Ron Wilson! High five!). So although it was satisfyingly solid old-school entertainment MARVEL’s senseless pricing shoots it in the foot and makes it EH!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT 2011 #1

Scott Hampton,  Josh Adams/Bob McLeod, Victor Ibanez, Tim Seeley, Andy Smith/Keith Champagne, Nic Klein and Mister Howard Victor Chaykin(a), Steve Niles, B Clay Moore, Matt Kindt, Matthew Cody, Drew Ford, Ivan Brandon and Adam Beechen(w), Daniel Vozzo, Thomas Chu, Ego, Richard & Tanya Horie, Chris Beckett, Nic Klein and Jesus Arbutov(c) and  Rob Leigh lettered every story much to my typing finger's relief.

(DC Comics, $5.99)

Steve Niles continues his, to my mind, unbroken decades long run of profitably confusing unoriginality, terrible prose and nonsensical tedium for horror while Scott Hampton is just tragically wasted on this pish (but his Justice Inc. backups with Jason Starr in DOC SAVAGE were several nice slices of awesome pie. Available in back issue bins – now!) And if you think that was a twist at the end, pal-o-mine, I can only say EH!

Then there’s some creepy stuff with Sarge Steel picking a damaged young woman (I guess she’s attractive; it’s hard to tell from the art) and basically building her up and leading her on even though he knows her soft young hands can never cradle his lifeless metal honker. Seriously:

This world we live in, I swear. This world.

(Illustration by Tim Seely. Words by Matthew Cody.)

It all ends with a sad cookout so I guess that makes it homely not skin crawling. Like witnessing any old dude grooming some young chick it made me feel AWFUL!

The next one is weird as it involves a Yakuza who has the magic power of shooting people really good but is only a bad man because the Yakuza are holding his son hostage. I don’t know, Yakuza Man, but if you are that exceptional at death dealing shouldn't you have rescued your son earlier? Anyway Yakuza Man dies and some JSA members (Who? Sorry, I forgot to care.) have to rescue his son who has inherited his super killing powers so we can end (actually it just stops rather than ends) with this:

You can have mine, Fumio. Then I can go down the pub for once.

(Illustration by Josh Adams. Words by B. Clay Moore.)

Because if it involves a crying kid with a gun we can all just assume that somewhere in there we all must have learnt something very special. All I know I learned was that this was AWFUL!

There’s an Alan Scott Green Lantern story which has scenes that just end rather than have a point and seems to just be there to explain that magic is called magic because it is magic. Which is magical. Victor Ibanez' art is nice though, it’s a bit Steve Pugh-y. Alas,  not even an artist as good as Ibanez can make Alan Scott’s new uniform look like he’s wearing anything other than what appears to be an exoskeleton made of lawn furniture. Still and all, art as good as this at least lifts it to EH!

The Jesse Quick one equaled the second Green Lantern tale in that both were so bland/incoherent they slid straight off the surface of my brain and pooled into a puddle of AWFUL!

Hey, if the big hand is pointing to JSA and the little hand is pointing to Howard Victor Chaykin it must be HUAC-O’Clock! Again. The script is about how even the stupidest of men can do some good or something. It isn't very good. Howard Victor Chaykin cheekily turns in a couple of pages he’s not quite finished (the hospital bed one, the supermarket one) but retains his special place in my withered heart by gifting us this goofy looking dude:

"How you doin'?"

(Illustration by Mister Howard Victor Chakin.)

Remember goofiness? I do and I say goofiness is OKAY!

Unless you are me or Howard Victor Chaykin’s mum this comic was AWFUL! Heck, even if you were me or Howard Victor Chaykin’s mum this comic was still AWFUL!

CREEPY #6

Nathan Fox, Shawn Alexander, Kevin Ferrara, Garry Brown and Neal Adams(a), Joe R Lansdale, Christopher A. Taylor, Alice Henderson, Dan Braun, Craig Haffner and Archie Goodwin(w).

(DARK HORSE COMICS, $4.99)

O! America! You guys used to be so good at anthologies! You totally did, I can tell you. All those EC comics people insist on reprinting in formats too expensive for me to purchase are printed testimony to that! And then there are CREEPY and EERIE the fondly remembered not-as-good-as-EC-but-pretty-good-depending-on-which-editor-was-in-charge-‘70s anthologies currently being reprinted in formats too expensive for me to purchase. But how are you now, America? How are you at the anthology format now? Let’s take a looky-loo at the latest manifestation of CREEPY:

Joe R Lansdale and Nathan Fox have the best offering with “Mine!” a relentlessly paced piece of grisly nonsense about a cowboy being chased by a gluttonous corpse. It works really well, suggesting the tone of Looney Tunes cartoons while never stinting on the gore. Joe R Lansdale and Nathan Fox previously collaborated on PIGEONS FROM HELL which is much better but this was still VERY GOOD!

Nathan Fox does stuff like this:

Nathan Fox – get some!

(Illustration by Nathan Fox. Word by Joe R Lansdale)

Then we have "Commedia Dell' Morte!" which is a story that mushes up clowns, priests, children, demons and murder in the hope that all that stuff will somehow interact to produce some kind of point without any effort on the behalf of the writer, Christopher A Taylor. The twist is it doesn't! Really nice Kent Williams style art by Shawn Alexander though so it’s OKAY!

"The Wreck" is notable for being largely wordless and Kevin Ferrara's art does a pretty good job taking the strain but Alice Henderson's script could have done with some tightening. Maybe just me but the twist didn't really need spelling out to that extent, give your readers some credit, ey? But all reservations aside it was pretty GOOD!

Reprint magic is provided by Archie Goodwin and Professor Neal Adams with "Fair Exchange"! So it’s hokey and old timey and lovely. I said it’s Archie Goodwin and Neal Adams which is another way of saying it’s GOOD!

Not a bad issue of CREEPY but as with most anthologies it can be pretty (ahem!) variable so I’m just talking about this particular issue when I say it was GOOD!

ROBERT BLOCH'S THAT HELLBOUND TRAIN#2

Dave Wachter(a), Robert Bloch, Joe R Lansdale & John Lansdale(w), Alfredo Rodriguez(c) and Neil Uyetake(l)

(IDW, $3.99)

Here's some craft, pals. Bet no one's buying this, besides my own bad self, but it's got craft by the bucket. It's an adaptation of a 1958 Robert Bloch (1917-1994) Hugo Award winning (in 1959) short story so right there you've got some strong craft. It's going to be an engine designed to entertain but if you bend down and put your ever-loving ear to it it's going to tell you stuff as well. Stuff about life and the living of same. Used to be you could do that; entertain and illuminate both at once.  Not bad for a genre short but when it came to genre shorts Robert Bloch knew his onions. Joe R Lansdale is pretty well informed about hollow leaved plants containing edible bulbs too. Heard tell of him? No? Go read THE BIG BLOW and get back to me, I'll wait...

...no, no need to thank me, thank Joe R Lansdale. Joe R and his own son John do a neat job on the old adapting duties. It's sweet, clean and quiet. Fact is they are pretty unobtrusive and unobtrusive is surely conducive to immersion. A thankless task to be sure unless you appreciate craft. And this is no stale antiquated tale this one. Though the bulk is Bloch's the Lansdale's and Dave Wachter pop a couple of contemporary references in there but cleverly so as not to burst the bubble of suspension of disbelief. Someone's been watching Mad Men is what I'm saying.

And Dave Wachter? I'm telling you to keep an eye on this tyke. He ain't loud and fancy like some travelling salesman who's gone when the morning comes leaving you with just a cheap bible and a water infection, no, he's a straight up straight arrow. Comes in does his job and it's only later, on reflection, that you realise how cleverly he handled that scene transition here or subtly supported the text with a slight artistic nudge there. Brings the creepy stuff good too.

It's not perfect (there are two spelling errors in one speech balloon, the thought balloons in the bird shit on the jacket scene don't work) but it's admirably restrained and honestly admirable in its emphasis on craft. So I reckon this one walks quietly and carries a big stick. Creatively speaking. In reality Joe R Lansdale is a dab hand at karate and needs no stick. I suspect if you came at him with a stick he would probably break that stick with your face. So don't do that rather buy this because although might take a while to cotton on it's really VERY GOOD!

Craft in action! Subtlety in motion!

(Illustration by Dave Wachter. Words by Bloch & The Lansdales)

Looking ahead if things go according to plan the only MARVEL Comics I’ll be discussing in the future will be DAREDEVIL, PUNISHERMAX and AVENGERS 1959. I think you know why.

(choke!)I’ll miss you Chris Samnee (sob!). You stay strong for me now, Chris Samnee.

Enough, MARVEL! Give The King his due! Pah! Enough!

(Illustration by Ron Frenz & Sal Buscema.)

(Doctor Doom created by JACK KIRBY.)

Wait, What? Ep. 50.2: In A Dark Woods

Picking up midway through our journey--more or less literally--it's the conclusion to our fiftieth episode of Wait, What?! Graeme and I tackle subjects small and large, from Walking Dead to the shootings in Oslo, from Supergods to Amy Winehouse. Ambition; death; Outbreak; Haywire.

It's an unconventional wrap-up to our less-than-conventional milestone episode and in some ways is more than a little bit of a downer -- we thought it would be an excellent idea to tell you now. It's probably shown its face on iTunes or you can hold a compact mirror up to it here:

Wait, What? Ep. 50.2: In A Dark Wood

As always, we hope this is a thing that you enjoy even when one of us (not to name any names...in part because he's writing this entry) drags things into the less cheerful side of things.  We humbly thank you for listening and are here with us for the next fifty!

Honestly, I have no idea for a title -- Hibbs on 7/3

BOYS #57: I really have nothing to say about this issue (other than "I've become generally bored with this title, and the only thing that keeps me reading is Hughie and Annie's relationship"), but how.... bizarrely  ironic, maybe, that this cover came out the same week as ULTIMATE FALLOUT #4? Still, an EH comic. FLASHPOINT #4: Again, not a ton to say -- this is competently executed, but it really isn't buttering my bread, if you know what I mean? --  but on the meta-level, there's something, again, ironic about the notion that the universe is about to have its reality rewritten by the only true Saint of the Silver Age, who effectively has a form of Alzheimers?  Also? I found something kind of genuinely creepy about the editorial at the back of this week's DC books explaining "why" people should buy DC comics in August. *shudder*. A perfectly OK single issue.

FLASHPOINT BATMAN KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #3: This, on the other hand, was 32 flavors of fucked up and wrong, and darkity-dark-dark, and I kind of really really liked it. It's funny, you could really say this is at least as dark and wrong as, say LEGION OF DOOM, but that nebulous ol' "craft" makes a difference, doesn't it? I thought this was VERY GOOD.

INFINITE #1: I think a story so dependent on Time Travel requires an artist of a certain subtlety to capture the difference between a "young version" and an "old version" of a character. Rob Liefeld is not that artist. Did I mention that HAWK & DOVE is the only one of the DC 52 that I have no series-based subs on, whatsoever? I thought the set-up of the comic is clever enough, and there's a sold premise here, but for me, Liefeld's art is a game-breaker. EH.

MYSTIC #1: I have no particular affection for or nostalgia about the CrossGen books, so I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this debut issue -- the art suffers a bit from "everyone has an open mouth expression all the time", maybe -- but I thought the writing was crisp, and the premise somewhat interesting (though there's something about the stratified society, and just how these girls are really able to know as much as they do, that didn't add up to me), and I certainly would like to read more. Solidly GOOD.

PUNISHER #1: I don't know. There are so many wonderful things being done on the "Max" side of Punisher, that a book starring the character square in the Marvel U needs something incredibly outstanding to interest me. I love Greg Rucka's writing normally, and this seems like it might be more "p0lice procedural" than anything else, but after putting it down, I found that nothing stuck with me here at all. I'd rather have another issue of Jason Aaron's run, I guess. EH.

RACHEL RISING #1: You got to admire Terry Moore for launching ANOTHER new series less than two months after his last one (ECHO) ended -- not just that, but to be doing it in a completely different genre (Horror) this time through. Though, from the first page it looks like it is taking place in the SiP universe anyway. I thought this was a GOOD first issue, largely marred by the last page, where I kept thinking that two pages must have stuck together or something, because that last beat wasn't a "come back for more next time!" one.

ULTIMATE COMICS FALLOUT #4: This has been such an uneven, purposeless series, with nothing in this issue having much of anything to do with the first three issues at all. The Spidey segment was fine, but nothing that would lead me back to the ongoing, in and of itself. My largest problem is that this spidey doesn't seem sufficiently different (insecure, nervous wise-cracking) from Peter Parker, though let's be fair, there's not a ton one can do in 8 pages. Well, no, that's a lie, there IS a ton you can do in 8 pages, but that's not within Bendis' skill set, that I can see. Oh, speaking of Bendis! Man, I get the shuddering creeps everytime I see that photo of him in the Architects double-spread -- he looks like a drag queen whose wig has fallen off! Anyway, yeah, this reader will RAPIDLY need to see something that differentiates this Spidey from Peter Parker.

The Reed Richards story was somewhat amusing from the POV of having an anti-Future Foundation from the writer of FF, but it took me a few pages to realize that this was Reed, as he really looks very little like even Ultimate Reed.

I thought the last story was adequate, but I'm really starting to think that Nick Spencer might be completely over-rated. The art was nice, though.

Overall, an OK issue, I guess.

That's my thoughts, what did YOU think?

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 50.1: The Devil, We Say

Yes, here we have it--Wait, What?'s fiftieth episode, filled with talk by Graeme McMillan and Yours Truly about Daredevil #1, the Defenders relaunch, Incognito and creator expectation in comics, Jim Starlin and Jim Shooter, Alan Moore's Captain Britain, and our usual ephemera jammed into just over an hour.

And since I've been told that "context" is this year's big buzzword among podcasters as the number one thing listeners would like, lemme point you toward this post by Jim Shooter in particular, and this interview with Ed Brubaker as things what might help in capturing this mythical "context" creature.

(Also, it should be pointed out that, despite the title and the graphic up top we didn't talk nearly enough about Daredevil #1, and it's really pretty great and you should go get yourself a copy if you haven't already.)

Savvy souls can find the latest installment on iTunes, or you can also give it an auditory gander here:

Wait, What? Ep. 50.1: The Devil, We Say

And, I should also note, installment 50.2 is right around the corner.  Thanks for putting up with us for 50 or so episodes, and we hope you'll stick with us for many more.

Arriving 8/3/2011

August, already? 30 DAYS OF NIGHT NIGHT AGAIN #4 (OF 4) 50 GIRLS 50 #3 (OF 4) 68 (SIXTY EIGHT) #3 (OF 4) CVR A NAT JONES & JAY FOTOS ADVENTURE COMICS #529 AVENGERS ACADEMY #17 FEAR BATMAN ARKHAM CITY #4 (OF 5) BATMAN BEYOND #8 BATMAN GATES OF GOTHAM #4 (OF 5) BETTY #193 BOYS #57 CALIGULA #3 (OF 6) DAOMU #6 DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BATTLE OF TULL #3 (OF 5) DC COMICS PRESENTS SHAZAM #2 DC COMICS PRESENTS THE METAL MEN #1 DC RETROACTIVE BATMAN THE 80S #1 DC RETROACTIVE THE FLASH THE 80S #1 DC RETROACTIVE WONDER WOMAN THE 80S #1 DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #13 DRUMS #3 (OF 4) DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS #9 ELRIC THE BALANCE LOST #2 FEAR ITSELF WOLVERINE #2 (OF 3) FEAR FEEDING GROUND #6 (OF 6) FLASHPOINT #4 (OF 5) FLASHPOINT BATMAN KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT DEATHSTROKE THE CURSE OF RAVAGER #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT SECRET SEVEN #3 (OF 3) FLASHPOINT THE WORLD OF FLASHPOINT #3 (OF 3) GI JOE VOL 2 ONGOING #4 GREEN WAKE #5 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #62 HERC #6 FEAR HERO COMICS 2011 (ONE SHOT) HEROES FOR HIRE #10 FEAR HOUSE OF MYSTERY #40 HULK #38 FEAR INFINITE #1 IRON MAN 2.0 #7 POINT ONE IRREDEEMABLE #28 IZOMBIE #16 JONAH HEX #70 LOONEY TUNES #201 MEGA MAN #3 SPAZ CVR MOON KNIGHT #4 MORIARTY #4 MYSTIC #1 (OF 4) NIGHT O/T LIVING DEAD DEATH VALLEY #3 (OF 5) PUNISHER #1 RACHEL RISING #1 RED SKULL #2 (OF 5) ROGER LANGRIDGE SNARKED #0 SAVAGE DRAGON #172 SCALPED #51 SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #12 SCREAMLAND ONGOING #3 SECRET SIX #36 SEVERED #1 SHIELD #2 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #227 STAR WARS DARK TIMES OUT O/T WILDERNESS #1 (OF 5) CORREA CVR STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE BERRY FUN #1 (OF 4) SUPERBOY #10 SUPERMAN #714 SWEET TOOTH #24 THAT HELLBOUND TRAIN #3 (OF 3) THOR HEAVEN AND EARTH #2 (OF 4) THUNDERBOLTS #161 FEAR ULTIMATE COMICS FALLOUT #4 (OF 6) DOSM USAGI YOJIMBO #139 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #5 WOLVERINE #13 WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #9 WYNONNA EARP YETI WARS #4 X-23 #13 X-FACTOR #223 ZORRO RIDES AGAIN #1

Books / Mags / Stuff AVENGERS ACADEMY PREM HC VOL 02 REAL WORLD BAKUMAN TP VOL 06 BEST OF ARCHIE COMICS TP BLEACH 3-IN-1 ED VOL 02 DIARY OF A ZOMBIE KID TP ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN TP VOL 01 NEW ED FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #257 FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN TP FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3-IN-1 ED VOL 02 HEAVY METAL SEPTEMBER 2011 HISTORY OF VIOLENCE TP NEW ED JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 STARRING GREEN ARROW META 4 COMPLETE SERIES TP OZ MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ GN TP PREVIEWS #275 AUGUST 2011 RED SONJA TP VOL 09 WAR SEASON ROCKET RACCOON GUARDIAN PREM HC SPIDER-MAN BIG TIME TP SUPERMAN GROUNDED HC VOL 01 TANK TANKURO HC W/ SLIPCASE WILLIE & JOE BACK HOME HC WILLIE & JOE WWII YEARS GN ZOMBIE TALES OMNIBUS TP (RES)

What looks good to YOU?

-B

"It's Not Like I Have Much DOWNTIME Anyway..." Comics! Sometimes I Fear Craft May Not Be Enough!

When I'm not inadvertently lying about Wally Wood creating Captain Britain I read comics and then I write some poorly judged words. Yeah, salesmanship! So, yeah, not a great week for comics, ey? Still, before I was utterly crushed by depression at the various items of unpalatable truth the Internet was souring my eyes with I wrote some words.

Trying to be a bit quicker so this is rough as a badger's backside. If it doesn't make anyone physically ill I'll try this again and thus be a bit more frequent. Everything in moderation, as my Dad used to say! Except boooshhhe (hic!), he'd add about three hours later.

Yes, it is all mainstream tights and fights crap this time. But I've plenty of other stuff to share, it just takes a bit more thought and time to digest than this stuff.

(Dear me: Shut up and just let it go! Sheesh!)

WOLVERINE #12

By Renato Guedes/Jose Wilson Magalhaes(a), Jason Aaron(w), Matthew Wilson(c) and VC’s Cory Petit (l)(Marvel, £3.99)

“Wolverine’s Revenge!” Part 3

Wolverine’s enemies gather around a TV to watch their hated enemy carve his way through a series of remarkably daft enemies. This has been happening for three straight issues now.

Another exciting issue of Wolverine: The Myth of Sisyphus! I think we get it now, Marvel Architect Jason Aaron. I think the point has been well and truly made. I’d go so far, if you’ll pardon my presumption at speaking on behalf of the entire readership of Wolverine, as saying that we’d pretty much got the point with the first issue, the one that was exactly the same as the two subsequent issues. And while we’re all here can I humbly request a moratorium on naff villains commenting on the fact that they are naff as though this self aware self deprecation somehow magically negates their naffness.  “I’m ToeTeeth, I have teeth in my …pretty lame, huh. Let’s you me fight!” It was cute a couple of times but it’s just grating now. A bit like me? I can read your mind!

I mean it’s grating in this comic because this is the third straight issue of it but its also grating because it’s pretty rife throughout Marvel comics as a whole. I just want to nip this one in the bud before it becomes as prevalent as Spider-Man telling women his spider-sense is “tingling!” (Haw! It’s funny because he means his penis! He’s telling the woman she is making his penis chubby with blood! Now she’s compelled to imagine his swollen and lightly moistened bulb trapped between his clammy skin and his taut uniform! With great power must come great sexpesting!)

Still, at least no one can complain that Jason Aaron hasn’t created any new characters. They are all rubbish mind you (but they know that - so it’s okay!) but they are all yours Marvel. Go make a movie about this bunch of sad sacks! But. But the bit where the guy makes the hobo dress up as Wolverine and then beats him to death was pretty funny. It would have been even funnier if he gave the hobo $3.99 first and his last word was EH!

(Wolverine was created by Len Wein and John Romita Snr. His first appearance was drawn by Herb Trimpe (Trim-PEY!))

CAPTAIN AMERICA #619

(Marvel, $3.99)

By Chris Samnee/Mitch Brettweiser/Butch Guice/Stefano Guadiano(a), Ed Brubaker(w), Bettie Bretweiser(c) and VC’s Joe Caramagna(l).

“GULAG” Part 4

Will Steve Rogers’ stop dithering long enough to rescue Bucky from his very Russian Hell? Or will salvation come in a shapelier guise? Surprised? You won’t be!

I don’t know, I just don’t know. It’s okay. There’s plenty of craft here. People are big on craft aren’t they? Apparently craft cures all ills. Lots of craft here. Hits the beats, does the job. You can’t complain if it’s got the craft, I’m told. It plods along and then stops right on the mark.  Art wise Chris Samnee makes everyone else look pallid in comparison no matter how many tricks they nick off Steranko. In the Not Chris Samnee bits Clark Gable turns up as the warden. Clark Gable is dead so it’s okay to steal his face it seems. These are the times we live in. When you die people take your face. Your face? Turned out you were just keeping it warm. You read CAPTAIN AMERICA #619 and it has craft so it is okay but you wish at some point it had had some life in it. If it had life in it perhaps it could wear its own face.

Oh, wait; there is one brief spike on the flatline of interest. It comes in the very final caption. This is quite clearly the result of someone coming back into the room after steaming up the John, only to find that in his absence the Totally Autonomous and Independent Marvel Architect Editorial Hive Mind has just picked Bucky, the very character he has just finished setting up a long term plot for, to be the victim of The Quarterly Death Sales Spike Lottery. Welcome to Groupthink, Marvel Architect Ed Brubaker. Welcome to Hell.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #619 has got Chris Samnee so it could never have been less than OKAY!

(CAPTAIN AMERICA was created by Joe Simon and JACK KIRBY.)

CAPTAIN AMERICA #1

(Marvel, $3.99)

By Steve McNiven/Mark Morales(a), Ed Brubaker(w), Justin Ponsor(c) and VC’s Joe Caramagna(l)

“American Dreamers” Part 1

Like a teenager on a Saturday night Captain America’s about to find out that sometimes dipping your wick can lead to violent retribution! Yes, once again The Past has returned to haunt him! While we can’t reveal our mystery villain let’s just say we almost called this one “Finding Zemo”!

After CAPTAIN AMERICA #619 comes CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 because as Mr. Jeff Lester says, “F**** numbers!” Got a potty mouth, that guy, but he’s kind to animals so it all evens out. Yes, obviously, it’s a new number one to take advantage of all the movie goers who tumble through the doors of every LCS in the land when a super-movie is parped out. Any minute now…(tumbleweed rolls across your screen)…While we’re waiting then I’ll just say that this is eerily like you might expect CAPTAIN AMERICA #620 to have been, in that it is exactly like every other Captain America story by Marvel Architect Ed Brubaker. Something happened in The Past and now Captain America must deal with the consequences in The Now!

Whenever I read a Captain America comic by Marvel Architect Ed Brubaker I find it handy to compare it to that issue where Bucky cried because he hadn’t had any Birthday cakes while he was a brainwashed Russian Assassin (CA#23.75,  “…All The Cakes That Are My Life!”). This is better than that one. But then that one was Godawful. Christ, that comic. Despite the wealth of craft I’m expected to care about what’s happening without being given any reason to other than if I don’t I’ve just wasted $3.99 (or 5 shillings and 6 pence). I mean that’s a pretty powerful stimulus but I’d prefer a creative one. I did like the way that the whole revenge thing could have been avoided if Peggy Carter had been less of a round heels. Men, Oy, such children they are! Oh, this has craft and…yes, it has craft. It’s certainly got craft. Craft, it’s got. Well done on the craft end of things, everybody.

Steve McNiven draws it. I hear people like Steve McNiven. He has craft too. He’s very popular; I’m guessing this is because Travis Charest fans need something to read while they are waiting for more Travis Charest things to read. I enjoyed the attention the colourist paid to Nick Fury’s face lines and seeing tiny wee Red Skull doing his Donkey Kong dance always cheers me up. I also enjoyed Steve McNiven’s attempts to vary his page layouts. By which I mean I enjoyed the fact that he had attempted to do so rather than I enjoyed the final results. Steve McNiven’s okay, he’s fine. He’s no Chris Samnee but, y’know, maybe one day. This was perfectly decent but at $3.99 I’d like a bit more than OKAY!

(CAPTAIN AMERICA was still created by Joe Simon and Jack KIRBY.)

(Everybody okay? Everyone make it out to the other side?)

Have a nice weekend y'all but remember - everything's nicer with COMICS!

New Comix Experience website!

In other news, we've completed a refresh of the Comix Experience website, which was pretty long overdue, I hate to say. In addition to it just looking visually fresher, there's a fair chunk of new content on the site for you to examine -- in super-particular I've put up an additional 26 Tilting at Windmills, and you can also find a scan of the ultra-rare Comix Experience 5th anniversary magazine, yay!

Spend a few minutes tooling around, let me know what you think?

Much love to my Mom, who did the rebuild! THANKS MOM!

-B

Wait, What? Ep. 49: The Speedo Mistake

Hmm, that number is remarkably close to 50, isn't it?  Although who can really say, considering the crazy numbering scheme we (by which I really mean I) have cooked up for us.  Seeing as it's also our 93rd entry on iTunes, and all.

Anyway:  Comic Con! Captain Britain! Ed Brubaker! Peter David! Marvel: Season One! Exclamation Points!  All of these things and more get their devil's due in this installment of Wait, What?, already loitering about on iTunes, or ready and eager to be listened to by your demanding ears, right here, right now:

Wait, What? Ep. 49: The Speedo Mistake

As ever, we hope your enjoy and thank you for your indulgence!  And now, if you excuse me, the cycle starts anew and I have like, ten minutes, before we start recording the episode that may or may not count as fifty.