We Read Comics

Red Wing #1-4 (Hickman/Pitarra - Image Comics)

2011-11-02T14:09:00.000-04:00

Some comic books force "writers" like me to come back from the cyber-dead and blog about them.

What. The. Fuck. Was going on in this comic book?!

Let me start over.

I love Jonathan Hickman. You could say that I'm a Jonathan Hick.... fan. Even when he phones in work-for-hire for Marvel, I still enjoy it. I picked up the first issue of this book solely based on the fact that his name was on the cover; didn't hurt that the cover looked like it had been drawn by Geof Darrow.

But...

You know what I hate? Time travel.

You know what I really hate? Trying to read a book about time travel... monthly.

You know what I really really hate? Father/son melodrama.

You know what I really really really hate? This book looks like it was drawn by Frank Quitely when he was 12.

Amazingly, I still thought this comic was fun. I have no idea what happened, because the characters all kind of looked the same AND because it was monthly and involved time travel. I plan on re-reading it and trying to figure it out.

Panels were frequently rough to follow, or vague, or disjointed, and a lot of the backgrounds looked like they had been drawn in Microsoft Pain. BUT the coloring was good, and pretty much carried the art on its shoulders. However, for all the crap I've said about Pitarra's art, the covers are fucking gorgeous. It's obvious that the dude can draw very very well.

All in all, read this if you have the opportunity, or if you love Jonathan Hickman, but it's pretty much like going out to eat at a mediocre Thai restaurant.

Holy Terror......HOLY SHIT

2011-10-08T20:25:00.002-04:00

dudes.this is the opposite of whats right.

Near Death

2011-09-26T19:40:00.001-04:00

W - Jay Faerber A - Simone Guglielmini

Crime time! I really liked this comic! Bad guy...really bad guy has a brush with death and decides he needs to make amends. His amends begin with interference that will cause him much strife, but he seems just gritty enough to work it out. The art is loose and shady without an overkill of detail, it matches the story quite well. Bravo!

4 out of 5 lessons learned.

Star Trek #1

2011-09-26T19:20:00.001-04:00

W - Mike Johnson A - Stephen Molnar

I guess I'm not a secret Star Trek fan, really, I'm just not a public one. I have a sentimental affection for Star Trek, so I decided to give this comic a go. There are (or have been in the last couple of years) SO MANY Star Trek comics popping up that I've had no interest in even looking at them. I'm not entirely sure why this one grabbed my eye, but it did. And, it was awesome. It has all of the classic Star Trek elements that we love: the bridge, the "Oh my god, what is that?! Put in on screen!", the mysterious affect of whatever "it" was on the crew. Awesome. The art isn't my all time favorite, but it's good and the characters look like the respective, real life, people that played them in the most recent movie. I think I'll probably read this series on a regular basis. Nice work, dudes.

4 out of 5 problems with the teleporter.

Half World

2011-09-24T21:23:00.001-04:00

W - Hiromi Goto Illustrations - Jillian Tamaki (Skim)

Let's start with the fact that this book is a novel, and not a comic. There are sparse black and white illustrations, but the writing is so succulent that every detail was fully animated in my imagination. I think that this is, ultimately, a coming of age story. A tale of transition from girl to woman, body and mind. The bad guy in this shit is straight vile. His depravity is palpable. He's just disgusting and gives me the heebie jeebies. The main character is pretty whiny at times, but she man's up in the end. Yeah!

3 out of 3 realms brought back together.

Liz is diving into DC!

2011-09-24T20:56:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm not swimming laps or anything, but I'm gonna get my feet wet.

Catwoman #1

W - Judd Winick A - Guillem March

Whoa, DC! Racy with a capital R. The story works, and the art is seductive. 25/30DD.

Wonder Woman #1

W - Brian Azzarello A - Cliff Chiang

I thought Wonder Woman looked really weird on the cover, but I liked it a lot! The interior art isn't quite as angular. Good, classic storyline...damsel in distress carrying a VIP baby. Yep, dope. 4 deflected arrows out of 5 horse bodied assailants.

Supergirl #1

W - Michael Green and Mike Johnson A - Mahmud Asrar

Straightforward entrance, excellent narration from multiple points of view and smooth art that's easy on the eyes. I, all around, liked it. I even got a little choked up at the end. 4 Supergirl's against 5 robots.

Batman Incorporated #8

2011-08-29T13:13:00.004-04:00

Error
404 - the fun in this comic could not be found.

all 0's out of 0101010101

The Punisher

2011-08-27T20:25:00.000-04:00

W - Greg Rucka
A - Marco Checchetto

A classic Punisher tale. Vigilante justice at it's best. Merciless righting of wrongs. The writing is good, it has an excellent flow and pace. It's easy to digest and I don't mean that in any kind of bad way. I'm a little iffy on the art. It's mostly ok, but Punisher too pretty! It doesn't fit. Regardless of my opinion of the art, the comic was good! Fun! Hard core!

4 out of 5 fully spent clips.

Binky to the Rescue

2011-08-20T20:22:00.000-04:00

W/A - Ashley Spires

Fun for everyone! This is the 2nd Binky book so far. Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of anything to do with cats, but still: The art is HILARIOUS! The facial expressions and body language of Binky are expertly rendered and portray the exact emotion intended. The story is simple, straightforward and appropriate for cat lovers of any age. It didn't get an Eisner nomination for nothin!

5 out of 5 on the Space Cat Academy entrance exam.

The Bombyce Network

2011-08-17T20:44:00.001-04:00

W/A - Cecil and Corbeyran

I was drawn in by the cover art. What a stroke of luck, this book is AWESOME!

Flea and Elmore are thieves. They're part of a network. The Bombyce Network. They have gotten themselves into a bundle of trouble by robbing the wrong powerful people. Nasty things are going on amongst the upper echelon of the French elite and this burglary could expose them all!

As indicated by the cover, the art is amazing. It's rich like a painting and still maintains the crispness of penciled lines. The story is gripping. Originally 3 issues, Corbeyran left the series after issue two. There was a three year wait between the first two, and an EIGHT year wait for issue three. Yeesh. The split-up is noticeable in the writing even though it's not directly made clear.

Cool shit. 4 out of 5 gold schillings.

JONAH HEX!

2011-08-07T14:43:00.008-04:00

Written by - Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti Art by - Ryan Sook
.......So its been a while since a posting, huh? We've been attempting (with phenomenal success and disparaging results) to read all of Flashpoint and Fear Itself.With such an extreme consumption of mediocrity we have dashed our ability to describe or transmute our indifference into words.Fear not!Hark!Out of the deluge of humdrum storytelling arises.........JONAH HEX #70! Alright Jonah Hex is great.Not as a human but as a monthly,on time comic,and as a character.Month after month for near on six years Palmiotti and Gray have brought a wrinkle to my brow and a smile to my lips.( also my hand to my mouth while i exclaim an "oh snap!". Because you do not mess with Hex and tons of characters seem lose sight of this,and then lose a chunk of their head....which i love!) But i digress.Jonah Hex has a rotating cast of phenomenal classic western comic artists and the best guest artists in the biz.They get artists that typically only do cover illustrations do to whole interiors because these high profile artists WANT to draw an awesome western....and that be Hex.Issue #70 is no exception,with the amazing Ryan Sook shaming lesser artists with his interior art.Hex has always done amazing single issue stories and rarely did multi part stories,which amongst the spate of crossovers and clifhangers based storytelling, was a gale of fresh air.This is the final issue before the enormous relaunch of DC comics in september....wait....i know. Maybe you dudes are like "hold on Christian,you just sold us on a great monthly series just to tell us its over!? what the hey!?" Fear not! DC comics is not completley brain dead, and Jonah will be back in the pages of "All Star Western"! This series will feature Jonah in Gotham! when its a frontier town! He'll be reluctantly teamed up with Amadeus Arkham the founder of Arkham Asylum, to catch criminals! The writing team remains the same! I know! Totally awesome right!? Read it!

two out two six guns firing on all cylinders
it would have been awesome if Paul Pope and Frank Quitely had each done a single issue of Jonah Hex.im just sayin.

Fear, Continued (Part 2 of Fear)

2011-06-29T21:22:00.006-04:00

Man. I had a copy of Journey Into Mystery in my pile this week that I was just SAVORING. I had it on the very bottom of the stack, waiting like an elegant digestif: it would end my Fear Itself session on a high note and my entire review would be better as a result. But when I cracked it open I realized it was last month's issue. There was no new Journey Into Mystery. I fabricated a new issue out of childish, baseless desire.

Whatever.

So here's my continued review of a backlog of Fear Itself issues. I hope that my bitterness doesn't bleed through too heavily.

Invincible Iron Man #504-505 - Xmas said recently (and I paraphrase): "the best crossover writers are the ones that write whatever the fuck they want whilst the 'event' is just happening. " I agree with him (though not with his lifestyle or the choices he's made). When Fear Itself is just a context, a sort of background thing to other, better stories, this whole series becomes pretty damn sweet. And while most Fear Itself books don't seem to be heeding to this guideline (and are suffering accordingly), Matt Fraction, the event's architect, really hits the nail on the head in his flagship Invincible Iron Man series. These were a great couple of issues. The Grey Gargoyle, in his turn as the coolest hammer-wielder thus far, is turning the citizens of Paris to stone. When Iron Man shows up to shut that shit down, he realizes (mid-melee) that all of the rubble he crashes and is punched through...is peoples!!! This is pretty weird and gross for the I-Man, as you can imagine, and you get a real sense of all this FEAR that everyone's been talking so much about. I liked!
Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1 - Man...Howard the Duck...what the damn...huh? Forget it.
Fear Itself: Deadpool #1 - Funny! Deadpool is funny sometimes! He's just such a scamp, you know? Always getting into some type of mischief. This adventure finds our protagonist scamming a suburban couple before tricking a hard-luck villain named "The Walrus" into thinking he's found one of the Serpent's Hammers. But who is that other inner-thought dialogue box? The white one? I didn't get that. If someone could explain that to me, that would be great.*
Secret Avengers #14 - Nick Spencer's back again, obeying what I will henceforth refer to as the "Xmas Event-uality," using the larger "Fear" stuff to execute an almost stand-alone story. I didn't get into this one as much as the last issue (with Congress and The Beast and what-not), but it was a pretty fun ride. Points for good use of Odin and Valkyrie, demerits for having the two main characters being all kissy face in the middle of a giant Nazi robot fight. Like Secret Avengers #13, this one was just so close to great.
Thunderbolts #159 - I was a third of the way through this giant sized, special issue of Thunderbolts when I realized I had no idea what was going on. I was enjoying it, I think, but I was pretty much totally lost. I leave a review of this issue to a certain co-blogger who knows better, who might have something substantive to contribute. He knows who he is.
Fear Itself: Black Widow - I am not an expert in terrorists. I will be the first to admit this. But do terrorists refer to "terror" as often as they do in FI: Black Widow? Don't they usually employ terror incidentally, in service of some greater cause? The goal being X, with the "terrorists" wiling to employ violent means to achieve X, with terror being a bi-product or ends towards X? Am I splitting hairs? Isn't this just a comic book? Yeah ok, but this issue was still stupid. A group of bad guys, looking to capitalize on the craziness happening in France, are in the middle of doing some "terror." Do they want money? Prestige? I don't know and neither do they. For a better example of Cullen Bunn's writing, please see Sixth Gun, which is fantastic. And then let's all pretend that this didn't happen.

I'm all caught up! Hopefully the next thing I review won't have anything to do with Fear Itself! Until Next Time!

* Before I even finished writing, I was informed that the other dialogue box is...also Deadpool. Because he's, like, crazy. So it's his inner dialogue, apparently. Maybe you knew that, but there we go.

Flashpoint #1

2011-06-26T18:14:00.001-04:00

W - Geoff Johns
A - Andy Kubert

So, you're probably like "Whaaaaaat? Wait, Liz is reviewing Flashpoint? Liz, that has nothing nice to say about core Marvel and DC titles? Why do you guys keep letting her review these books?!"

Calm your worried mind. I'm going to read the five issue, main series of Flashpoint. Guess what?! I thought issue #1 was pretty dope. Somebody is seriously f*%$ing around with Barry Allen! One second, everything is normal. He's got Iris, love of his life. He's got super powers, he's the Flash, duh. And then in the next moment, after waking from a little cat nap everything is BONKERS! Nothing makes sense! His mom comes to meet him for birthday dinner, whaaaat?! His beautiful Iris is clearly involved with someone else. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are the bad guys?! Batman is super mean! What the hell? Little by little, the pieces start to come together and bring some sense to what's going on. But...it can't all be peaches and cream. I'm not terribly fond of the art. It reminds me of Michael Turner, no disrespect. Yep, I liked it and am actually looking forward to issue #2. Stay tuned!

4 out of 5 whacked out realities.

All Nighter

2011-06-26T14:37:00.002-04:00

W/A - David Hahn

Setting: A 24 hour diner type place that reminds me of my many years as a Denny's waitress. I want to hate it, but I don't. I like it. The comic, I like the comic. I hated being a Denny's waitress.

The main character of the story is a girl named Kit. She doesn't like her boyfriend, but can't seem to break up with him. He's always trying to 'figure something out', which usually involves B&E. She has a couple of lightly introduced roommates and is looking for a third. I'm not entirely sure where the story is going from here. It could be some kind of life changing crime drama, or it could be a spirited coming of age saga. Either way, the storytelling is sensible and I look forward to continuing with this series (despite my food service flashbacks).

4 smoke breaks out of 5 tables.

One, Two, Three, Four...Fear! (1 of 2)

2011-06-22T19:11:00.009-04:00

Woah! Guess it's been a minute. Almost as if I was staring at an increasingly large pile of Fear Itself books and simply could not summon the will to go on. But is that what Red Skull's daughter would do? Hell no. She would read that pile of comics, comb her skull, and then get out there and face the world. She'd also probably drive to Marvel's headquarters in New York and do something terrible in broad daylight to the people responsible for these comics. I won't do that, but I will throw my unsolicited opinions out into the internet ether:

Iron Man 2.0 #6: Am I that easy to please? Can Nick Spencer just put a bunch of Immortal Weapons in front of me, throw the words "Eighth City" around a few times, and watch me grin like an idiot?Apparently, yes.
Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #2 - Really? More Thor Girl? This issue finds our "heroes" turning themselves into the authorities and occasionally punching. Also included: some disposable, irrelevant dude deciding that he just can't handle the pressures of leadership. How many whining superheroes that no one gives a shit about can you fit into one comic? Youth In Revolt dares to find out.
Fear Itself: Homefront #3 - Remember Speedball? C'mon, sure you do. Without Speedball, we wouldn't have had that Civil War! Remember that Civil War? No? Well, Marvel definitely does. Speedball is front and center in Homefront, trying just so hard to make amends for all those people he horribly killed on accident that one time. Also, to be interesting. Johnny Woo continues his pretty cool bout with sanity in the title's second act, plus some other things happen. I find Homefront to completely benign-- neither offensive nor good. Which is saying something for this crossover. And it definately reads much smoother than a lot of other Fear Itself books, which is saying a lot more.
Avengers #14 - This comic book is like...if Brian Michael Bendis got Eternal-Sunshine'd and lost all previous memory of the comics he's written, how to write comics, etc. THEN some editor shows him Powers and is like, "write like THIS guy." So this weird, de-Bendis'd Bendis shits out a Brian Michael Bendis impression and it's called "Avengers." But Please Note: I believe in and love BMB. When the word balloon faucet turns off and things settle down a bit, I think he's as good as anyone writing comics right now. Even this issue has its moments (Ben Grimm totally drops a building on the Red Hulk: awesome). But overall the whole reality show confessional thing feels a little like Jerking Off. In a weird way.

More? Oh, yes, many more. To be continued!

Samurai's Blood #1

2011-06-11T17:07:00.004-04:00

Written by Owen Wiseman
Art by Nam Kim and Sakti Yuwono

Have you read Lone Wolf and Cub? There's only one right answer to that question.

Owen Wiseman has. Plus a bunch of other shit, probably. Like books and stuff what ain't got pictures. Maybe that's unfair; not every samurai book HAS to be compared to Lone Wolf and Cub. But if you're going for a historically accurate, super-dramatic period piece set in Edo-era Japan against the cartoonishly exaggerated backdrop of what we refer to, hundreds of years after the fact, as "samurai honor," then guess what? That shit's a little like Lone Wolf. Tough sake, kemo sabe.

Samurai's Blood, however, accomplishes the goals that it aims for, I think. At least in the first issue. The point of bringing up LWaC is only to say that it's pretty tough to have anything new to add to this genre. But this title's doing its best. The Sanjo clan is being wiped out in a massive power grab and the only branch spared is that of the youngest member, who's been hiding in the mountains, fiercely training his son and a young retainer.

So much samurai. This book oozes samurai. Almost...too much. But the art isn't bad. My one complaint is that, so far, the tone is so deadly serious. Like EVERY PAGE is THE MOST IMPORTANT PAGE. That's kind of a half-assed critique, so I wouldn't put too much stock in it. But still.

Four out of Five Retainers, Dying w/Their Swords Pointed Towards the Enemy in the Service of Some Rich Guy

Four Itself: Round Fear

2011-06-10T20:25:00.005-04:00

True Story: I was at the comic shop last week when this kid, maybe ten years old, says to his dad, "What the heck is this?" He's holding up a copy of Fear Itself #3

"That," Dad says, "is Fear Itself, I think."

"Whaizzat? Whaizzat about?" the kid asks.

"I don't know, son," Dad replies. "I think they're just giving hammers to a bunch of jerks." The kid looked at the comic for another moment before tossing it back on the shelf. It landed sideways.

I've been trying, but I can't think of a better way to sum up this crossover event.

Fear Itself #3: A few more hammers are given away, and Captain America is ready to Kick some Ass. As the core series, Fear Itself is getting harder to read as a stand alone book, since outside events in outside series are becoming more and more integral to what's going on. There was a surprise Hammer awarding in this issue, but the biggest difference between characters before and after receiving the wrath-of-the-serpent is that they are required to use exclamation points after everything they say. Big 'ol shocker ending that left me unmoved, unshocked. Bleh.
Journey Into Mystery #624: I'm going to go ahead and make this official: the best reason to read Fear Itself and its many children is so that you can read Journey Into Mystery in the proper context. This book is so dope. Kieron Gillen has definitely made my list of Writers To Watch. There's been so much crap happening with Asgard, Thor, Loki, and the Marvel/Norse-iverse in the last year; but somehow Gillen makes the reader feel totally at ease with all of it (having read barely any of the pertinent material) while providing a HEL of an entertaining comic. Loki is awesome. Volstagg is awesome. The hel-wolf is SUPER awesome. Read this, please.
Fear Itself: The Deep: This was fucking terrible. I'm serious. In a sea of mediocre, work-for-hire bullshit, The Deep stands alone. Deeply shitty. Deep up a butt hole. The script for this book should be sank Deep, Deep below the waves, erased from the minds and memories of men. It's about Namor and the ocean, or something. I don't know. I want to forget. And it's by the guy that did Sixth Gun, a very cool book from Oni Press. I don't know what happened. This is what the Serpent God is doing to us, apparently.

Fourth Session Report: Is there more? How much more? Did I even read all of the books that came out last week? There was MORE?!? Truly, this is the essence of...apprehension. Itself.

x - men first class.......?

2011-06-04T13:38:00.007-04:00

.....was awesome! and kick ass was horrid. there i said it.

although.... i was appalled that the men behind the curtain of "x-men: first class" attempted to present January Jones as being alluring or attractive. ugh.

Fear Itself: Round Three (3)!

2011-05-27T18:23:00.005-04:00

Nick Spencer wrote both of the Fear Itself issues released this week! I like Nick Spencer! He's nominated for an Eisner for Best Writer this year, and Morning Glories is a weird, interesting read. Let's see how he treats the cruel bitch that is Fear Itself:

Secret Avengers #13 - Ok! This one really had me going. A reeeeeal page turner. How do you like this premise: As hordes of god-knows-what kind of Nazi robots are descending upon Washington D.C. (thanks, Fear), the gutless elected officials to the U.S. House of Representatives have fled the capitol! EXCEPT! One man has stayed behind; it seems in his hurry to skirt fiery death-by-Nazi, the Speaker of the House forgot to adjourn the session! House Rep. Leonard Gary (D-Ms.) realizes this means he can now, all by his lonesome, call motions to order! Or even vote on legislation! While doom is threatening to knock the whole place down any second! I was really enjoying this issue until it devolved into a sappy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington knock off. But I think the idea of this is so good that it should have been stretched out over a bunch of issues. But alas, what we have instead is two full pages of the Gettysburg Address (I'm serious) while the Lincoln monument come-to-life smashes Nazi bots. So close.
Iron Man 2.0 #5 - War Machine plus Iron Fist?!? Whaaa?!? Here's a secret about me: I looove Iron Fist. For my money, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist is one of the most kick ass comics of the past several moons. I Jump at any IIF appearance in any other title and, for the most part, am disappointed. But this was pretty cool! War Machine is dealing with the D.C. crisis (see above, kind of) when The Prince of Orphans is summoned away to seal the Eighth Kingdom. If that last sentence made no sense, you need to read the above mentioned Iron Fist series POST HASTE and report back. AT ANY RATE: Sweet issue, good tie-in to Fear Itself.

Third Session Report: Thanks, Nick Spencer! A light, but enjoyable week!

Vampirella and the Scarlet Legion #1

2011-05-22T19:11:00.006-04:00

Vampirella is the key to everything! The old ones are coming! Is she the only one that can stop them?! Nope, the Scarlet Legion ( a ruthless brand of vampire hunters) will step in to help her save the world. The only question is, will they see her as friend...or foe?

I can't wait to see what happens!

5 out of 5 crucifix shaped wooden stakes.

I am totally lying.

Fear Itself: Round Two

2011-05-20T14:27:00.006-04:00

(Cover to Herc #3, w - Pak, Van Lente / a - Edwards)

The Fear Train just keeps on a rollin'. This week's batch of comics are as follows:

Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt - Read Liz's excellent post (below) for a pretty good summary of what's wrong with this single issue. I guess it's possible that I am too far out of the Initiative loop to really "get" this comic, so I don't want to be too harsh. Except to say (or reiterate from Liz and Christian) that Thor Girl is incredibly fucking stupid. Thor Girl? Everything else aside, you can't think of a better name than "Thor Girl?" I find this character offensive to Thor, fans of Thor, fans of comic books, and all women, everywhere.
Herc #3: Herc so Silly! I had no idea. Brooklyn's got The Fear and Herc's on the case, promising to let evildoers "taste his steel." It seems like more than a few of these tie-in titles feature main characters fighting slightly more crime than usual due to the serpent god's Fear Juice. Starting to feel like a cop out; I am increasingly disinterested.
Avengers #13 - I completely agree with Christian (see below) and his take on the Bendis dialogue thing. Pretty snappy and what-not, but a little jarring. Entertaining, but distracting. But Bendis has to make word balloons: he can't not. Watching Avengers flirt with each other, though, is...not good? I don't know. I am indifferent to this book.
Invincible Iron Man #504 - Unread, as of this writing. Dammit.

Second Session Report: When I was reading, I didn't think I minded these comics. But when I look over these bullet points I'm not seeing a lot of positivity. This is troubling: am I becoming inured to crossover bullshit? Have to keep on eye on this.

Fear Itself.......With A Little Help From It's Friends

2011-05-18T21:16:00.011-04:00

Dudes! An event is happening in marvel comics right now! have you heard of it? It's called "fear itself" and it'll make your wallet piss itself in fear all right. nick summed up my feelings on crossovers pretty well in his previous post so i wont rehash it again, but i am going to attempt to read all the comics that cross over into the event. here is my my brief initial reactions to all the Fear Itself issues i have read.

Fear Itself: book of the skull - the red skulls daughter is super evil, deformed, and is the new red skull!She busts into an old ww2 era bunker of her pops to uncover something terrible! esoteric Nazi occult stuff? rad!

Fear itself #1 - Tony stark wants to help the Asgardian rebuild their home of Asgard and Odin is all like "pfft,i believe we'll be bouncing out to the cosmos instead"........things start getting all fear-y across the globe.an ancient god is awakened and pissed off.a sense of dread pervades through the marvel universe.......this could be cool.....i DO like Matt fraction.

Fear Itself: Homefront - here's a batch of four short stories: Speedball is volunteering incognito for the families of victims of the school bus explosion that started off civil war (yeah i know,like 5 years ago we're still talking about it)there are two other short stories in here that i don't even remember anything about which maybe doesn't say anything good about my memory or those stories.BUT it also features an agents of atlas multi part story that is awesome and jimmy woo kicks mega ass in.

Journey into Mystery #622 - this title used to be Thor and was about Thor.now it's called Journey into Mystery and is about Loki, who has be de aged into a child.its super rad,mythical and Loki as a child allows for such great innocent mischief and misguided intent.if you dug the Thor movie check out Journey into Mystery.the asgardian aspects of it are the whip.

Invincible Iron Man #503 - this is the conclusion to an ongoing story about doctor octopus trying to best tony stark in a battle of intellects.pretty cool stuff and i love the fraction iron man, but it was barely involved in fear itself except for tony witnessing some ominous comets crashing to earth.what are they? well that is all explained in ....

Fear itself #2 - Those comets are crazy ass hammers sent by the previously mentioned awakened and infuriated elder god.....who is a Norse deity that rules with FEAR and is the oldest asgardian! These hammers are sent to people who will become this gods army of fear on earth.all them get hammers like anti Thor's or some such shite....i dunno,this is going to goofy town already.Sin goes on the offense and a ton of stuff gets blown up,so that was exciting.

Fear Itself Spiderman #1 - HOLY CRAP! new york is collectively losing their minds to paranoia and .......FEAR.riots are breaking out,chaos is all around, and spidey has gotta deal with it.color me unimpressed.all of the world is freaking out which is actually pretty scary if ya think about it,and spidey is hilarious as usual.

Journey into Mystery #623 - Loki is tryin to figure a way out of this fear itself mess, which means defying his father and getting into mischief!classic Loki.ill keep reading this book long after fear itself if this awesomeness keeps up.this book has the two things I'm real crazy about in comics right now:imagination and exploration.thinking of crazy awesome uncharted ideas and then delving into unexplored territory.solid stuff.mystic as all get out too!

Fear itself: Homefront #2 - speedball is still a well meaning douche and the whole town of Stamford turns against him as the fear spreads,more forgettable back up features and Agents of atlas/jimmy woo kickin ass in a castle.these dudes should just kept doing agents of atlas.

Fear Itself: youth in revolt - Liz's review says it all.meh-tacular.

Herc #3 - ya know, Ive never read Herc before so I'm just popping for fear itself.they did a great job of getting me up to speed right away! Hercules is depowered,works in a diner in Brooklyn,and has a ton of mystical artifacts that help him whoop booty.OK go!.....Herc fights everybody! a street gang/cult of the war god "Ares"! escaped prisoners from the raft! quasi deities!....which was all pretty silly and only tangentially involved with fear itself.at one point Herc did have me cracking up tho.Herc is doing a public appearance and listening to citizens complaints which range from a meth lab next door to a neighbors terrier barking all night.Herc's solution to all problems? they will "meet his steel" ha!

Invincible Iron Man #504 - all the citizens of Paris have been turned to stone! oh noes! iron man is gonna check it out and throws down with one of the hammer wielding "worthy" (heralds of the evil asgardian) who is made of stone! hmmm?
the banter between tony and pepper continues to be phenomenal and realistic but I'm a little Luke warm on this ish.....and i super dig Matt fractions writing.i hope this book stays great throughout the deluge that is fear itself.i dunno.

Avengers #13 - this takes place before/during the events of fear itself #1 and covers tony starks plan to rebuild Asgard from a more intimate and avengers based perspective.the avengers and the asgardians have a raging party to celebrate! it looks fun as hell,volstagg drops hints that he wants to be an avenger,luke cage slams mead like "whoa",and hawkeye flirts with spider woman.the dialogue is classic whip crack Bendis,but much like his his writing on Mighty Avengers,it does not seem to fit the characters and super heroic setting.red hulk eats a bunch of raw eggs! hilarious! this issue ends with spider-man saying "and, like that,the avengers were never going to be the same again.no joke."
its like spidey gets the whole joke about crossovers and how they "change everything" and is cluing us in. thanks spidey.i guess.

Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #1

2011-05-15T18:00:00.003-04:00

W - Sean McKeever
A - Mike Norton

I'm familiar with 'The Crossover' and do what I can to avoid it when it's around. However, having read none of the Fear Itself comics, so far, I was goaded into reading this one.

It has all of the qualities I'm looking for in a comic to randomly review:

It's a #1
It's a mini-series
It's a Marvel comic

I find that I can pick up most Marvel #1's or one-shots and read/review them without needing to go back. I don't care about the characters or have a pressing need to follow up on the story, which gives these books a certain disposability.

I guess you can probably tell from my tone that I didn't really dig it. I enjoyed the little intro blurb on the first page. The art has just a smack of 90's Image and, maybe it's just me, but I don't think anyone wants to revisit that. I couldn't really feel the 'flow' of the story. I understood what was happening, but the pacing was weird and the events seemed a little disjointed. Don't misunderstand me, there wasn't anything glaringly bad about this comic book, but it was definitely not my cup of tea, or even on the same street as my alley.

As a (mostly) non-superhero comic reader I am always on the lookout for a book that will pique my interest in the genre - a book that will CHANGE EVERYTHING! This comic book was not the one.

p.s. Thor Girl?

Superman: Brainiac

2011-05-14T16:49:00.011-04:00

written by: Geoff Johns
art by: Gary Frank

Superman vs Brainiac again! for the first time!? Yeah,so apparently the hundreds of times Supes has tussled with Brainiac were not the real super intellect that is Brainiac!? those dudes were just probes sent to gather information about Superman for brainiacs "collection" of curios......which includes a great number of miniaturized and bottled cities,one of which looks shockingly familiar to the man of steel! (cue dramatic music) DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN! When my man Supes kicks a ton of brainiac droid @$$,Brainiac is roused from his techno slumber and is pretty furious about it and expresses himself with his fists! At one point Brainy initiates attack attempt #242 against Superman.Thats a lot of combat data to have stored and memorized.Supes doesn't know whats comin but Brainiac is bringing it.look out kryptonian!
Seriously,this was a "Super" cool story.Its totally self contained,so you just swoop into the story and get ready for a blast.Brainiac is super smart and is like the ultimate collector/snob......dude wants to eliminate all of earth because now they know about krypton,a place "only he should know of and wont share".Brainiac is like the extraterrestrial version of that "friend" you have who is real into music but is all "yeah,[fill in the blank]is my favorite band right now,but you've probably never heard of em". Like an E.T. that wont share his reeses pieces and gets violent at the mere suggestion of it.
Like superheroes? like sci-fi? So does writer Geoff Johns! (check out his Green Lantern mythos,its an awesome space opera....with an intergalactic police force,like Starfleet or something!) Check this out!

- DO NOT GET SUPERMAN PISSED OFF! Brainiac pushes some of Clarks buttons and the response is........terrifying.

- Superman's adopted dad, Pa Kent is a real great father.He's supes dad y'all,he learned Supes on how to be human!

- Gary Frank is an awesome penciler.Great action scenes that bust through the panel in amazing detail.

- i really wish all the artists that draw Supergirl would finish drawing her shirt.The current shirt exposes her entire stomach.Midriff baring shirts are exceedingly stupid,particularly on a flagship female character in fiction,let alone in the real world.it's time to hang it up.

4 probes destroyed out of 5 probes sent

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Another Marvel Crossover Event

2011-05-13T19:21:00.006-04:00

Fear Itself

Crossover Events. The ugly reality of comic book publishing. Beneath the shining veneer of color and unbridled imagination lies, hidden away, the cruelly mistreated, abused child that makes all of it possible. I hate them...but I love them.

And why wouldn't you? Crossover events promise to "change everything!" Just when you've had your fill of the crime-fighting status-quo, along comes a massive monster/war/rift in time-space. Things will get horribly grim, a few heroes will be killed, and at the last minute (issue) the series' central character will somehow save EVERYTHING. It's a sound formula, right?

But as we all know, the formula's the problem. Not only the predictability of the story lines, but the arbitrariness of Changing Everything every year, just in time for summer. The transparency of crossover events as horrible, word-balooned greed can't help but wear on even the most faithful reader.

I've gone through a pattern for the past few years:
1. Start the series
2. Enjoy the first few issues
3. Miss a random, under printed issue
4. Lose track of the plot
5. Realize that company X hates me and loves only my money
6. Try to jump back in since, hey, I already went this far
7. Realize I have no fucking idea what's happening in this comic or any comic related to it
8. Give up, defeated.
9. Vow "Never Again."

So, all that being said, here' s my comprehensive-ish, multi-part Mega Blog covering all of Marvel's latest clusterfuck, Fear Itself. I hearby and officially invite all of my fellow Wereadcomics bloggers, whom I know are each reading various parts of this series themselves, to join me in a debate of the merits and "meh"-rits of this event in their own postings. Feel free to disagree or even call me names.

So Here We Go! In the order that I read 'em!

Fear Itself: The Book of the Skull: Really cool! The Red Skull's daughter is up to something! Awesome WWII Captain America flashbacks! Fear Itself is going to be so cool!
Fear Itself #1: Man, Matt Fraction can make anything cool, maybe. Asgard, and all of its godly citizens, have been stuck on earth. In middle America. Odin demands they flee the planet (has had enough of Oklahoma) in anticipation of some encroaching evil. But Thor loves earth chicks, so there is conflict. A good start! Let's go!
Fear Itself: Home Front #1: A serial compilation of stories apparently not good enough to merit their own title. Not too bad, especially the Speedball story that opens the issue. As a peripheral title, Home Front seems relatively harmless, if not actually good.
Journey Into Mystery #622: Okay, this is awesome. A good reason to read crossovers, apparently, is to check out titles that you otherwise would have completely ignored. Thor looks to be prominently featured in Fear Itself, and Loki is never far behind his big bro. In JiM, we join Loki after he's been turned into a child without his adult memories as punishment for past trickery. Will he reform? Will he get back to his old shenanigans? I need to know!
Fear Itself: Sin's Past: MISSED IT! DAMMIT!
Invincible Iron Man #503: This only seemed sort of related to Fear Itself issues previously released, except for the end. Not a bad Iron Man session, though. I didn't really know what was happening, but good nonetheless. That Matt Fraction, I tell ya.
Fear Itself Spiderman #1: Spiderman is getting the fear! All of Manhattan is getting the Fear! This was the first issue in the Event so far that gives you a sense of what's at stake: being pretty freaked out about stuff. Kind of nebulously freaked out and nervous. I don't know. The more I think about it, this kind of sucked.
Journey Into Mystery #623: Rebuilding momentum! Even better than the last JiM! Asgardian tom-foolery at its finest! I think I will read Journey into Mystery from now on!
Fear Itself #2: Ok. The shine is coming off this puppy. First issue that was actually disappointing . The God of Fear is assembling "The Worthy" by shooting hammers down to their locations, giving them vaguely enhanced, maybe Thor-like powers. The lineup of hammer-ers is pretty lame and the whole issue felt kind of disjointed. Crossover-itis might be setting in.

First Session Status Report: Enthusiasm waning, but I'm still in! Bring on the Fear!

Aaron and Ahmed

2011-04-10T15:14:00.004-04:00

Written by Jay Cantor
Art by James Romberger

I was really excited to read Aaron and Ahmed. Here's the pitch: A U.S. Army interrogator at Guantanamo Bay, sickened by the methods used by his cohorts, attempts to suss information out of a high level prisoner (Ahmed) by feeding him estrogen and allowing him various comforts and privileges. The idea is that the combination will cause Ahmed to fall in love with his therapist/interrogator and reveal information he wouldn't otherwise. Pretty crazy, no? Intriguing, yes?

Unfortunately, the bulk of the book didn't live up to its premise. While I really enjoyed some of the high-minded analysis about the motives behind Islamic extremism and the War on Terror in comic-book form, it ended up dragging the plot down.

Things take a turn for the crazy/implausible about mid-way through the book and I don't think that the story ever really recovers. But none of this is to say that Aaron and Ahmed isn't worth checking out: the dialogue is smart, the art is unique and effective, and the treatment of HIGHLY controversial subjects is handled tastefully (I think).

Ultimately, I think Aaron and Ahmed just needed a little more room to breathe: stretch this story out over two or three volumes and the massive amount of happenings, twists, and weirdness might not seem so forced. I dunno. Maybe I was just really pulling for those crazy kids to make it...

2 and 1/2 out of 5 Enhanced Blogging Techniques

Nonplayer #1

2011-04-06T19:41:00.003-04:00

w/a by Nate Simpson

The cover to Nonplayer has been catching my eye in Diamond's Previews magazine for months now. Look at that dinosaur-thing. All wrinkly and what not. All harnessed up and shit. What is that about, I wondered? But the description didn't do anything for me; something about video games, angsty chick, blah blah whatever. I consciously allowed the book to flush out of my awareness. "Be Gone!" I said, and forgot about it and probably ambled toward my next food.

And then there it was, today, new comic book day, sitting on the olde New Release Wall. And man, what a great fucking read it was.

Image is on a tear! So many good books! Bad Dog! Morning Glories! Chew! Undying Love! Who IS this publisher? And now, with Nonplayer, the hot-streak continues.

Nonplayer IS about an angsty girl and video games, but in a really good way. It's also about the future, maybe a little video game culture, escapism, violence, dinosaurs(?), violence, and, I think, artificial intelligence. Anyone who reads comics or watches movies knows the danger of written video-game-speak--this kind of dialogue almost always comes off as forced or nonsensical, filled with real and made up jargon to compensate for writers having no idea what they are talking about.

Nonplayer does not suffer from this problem. The book is one of the few titles that references technology (games, in this case) in such a way that it isn't cloying or silly. I am genuinely curious about the world that's being fleshed out here and I genuinely want to play the sweet-ass game these characters are obsessed with.

And the Frank Quitely impersonation that Nate Simpson is pulling off here? Very nice.

8 out of 10 Non-Playable Characters (or are they...?)

Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1

2011-03-30T16:09:00.002-04:00

Written by Eric Powell & Tracy Marsh
Art by Phil Hester

Godzilla is back! Just the way you love him! This shit rules. Feast your eyes on that tri-fold cover, DUDE!! My only gripe is that it seems like there's a lot more comic than there is. It has super spaced out paneling and a bunch of non-comic pages at the end. Bring it on, gimme more!

4 smashed buildings out of 5 Japanese cities.

Pale Horse

2011-03-21T19:47:00.009-04:00

written by - Michael Alan Nelson
pictures by - Christian Dibari (cool first name!)

Cole is a man who has always attempted to do right but has always been wronged.When his wife is murdered Cole is not having it any more.With years of experience as the most shit pants inducing bounty hunter in the south and young son in the saddle with him,Cole blasts a hole through the South and is not taking anyone alive.
This was an awesome straight ahead western.Cole is an ex-slave and former Union soldier who throws around money and bullets like a bachelor at a strip club in his possessed bid for revenge.And he doesn't take quietly to racial epithets! Some loudmouth wants to insult his recently deceased Sioux wife? Cole shoots his teeth out!In the badassery tradition of "Unforgiven" and "Lone wolf and Cub", Cole is unrelenting walking death.....with a secret past!
The dialouge here is very terse and bubbling with tension....Cole is dynamite waiting to get lit.
The art has a roughness to it that enhances the gritty realism of the book,and the color is great.The backgrounds are done with this cool dirty water color wash,so they look very vibrant without being distracting.
If you like your westerns in the style of......well if you like westerns at all give this a look.If you dig westerns like Unforgiven,Open Range,and the Searchers;then prepared to be surprised,entertained,and thrilled.and you can it read it outside and not be inside watching a western on the television!

4 out of 4 extremities removed with a high caliber revolver

Bad Dog #4

2011-03-21T14:44:00.002-04:00

Written by Joe Kelly
Art by Diego Greco

Joe Kelly is in my top three favorite writers of fuckwords. Serious: this guy can swear and make characters swear like nobody's business. There are other cool things happening (werewolf, vampires, milk cartons), I guess, so read this now.

This issue also marks the beginning of a new story arc, so it's a great jumping on point for new readers. And the first issues are probably available at a comic store near you...

4 out of 5 Talking Severed Heads

Let Me In - Crossroads

2011-03-20T15:09:00.002-04:00

W - Marc Andreyko
A - Patric Reynolds

It won't matter if you've seen the movie or not. But if you do, see the original and just 'deal' with the subtitles. This is all I have to say about the pros/cons of original vs remake. That argument never needs to be had again. Even as a prequel (nevermind that the movie came out months ago and we're still waiting on the last issue of the comic), it's a gritty read that's fuzzy on the details of what you're jumping into. The art does the writing great justice with it's rough style and muted colors. It sets the mood. The storytelling is calm and non-suspenseful. There's plenty of murder going on, but somehow it doesn't have me on edge. It's like getting a glimpse of their every day life, and when done all the time even the most horrible of things seems normal. I'm pretty indecisive on this one. With one more issue to go, I'm hesitant to bring the hammer down with a final rating. What if some crazy ass shit happens in the last issue that totally blows my mind banana?!

For now, I impart 2.5 out of 5 unlucky hitchhikers

If anything changes with the final issue, I will certainly let you know.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Comic Book Time!

2011-03-20T12:42:00.002-04:00

Written and illustrated by so many cool emeffers it's unbelievable!

If you don't love Yo Gabba Gabba, it's definitely you and not them. This is a collection of 24 different strips by a gaggle of awesome comic people like Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Mike Allred, J. Torres and Kali Fontecchio. The list goes on and on. This book is an all ages funfest! They're goofy! They're silly! They learn things all the time! It has awesome lessons on manners and reminders of things like sharing and brushing your teeth! What's not to love?!

I'll leave you with this little ditty and a rating of 5 out of 5 boomboxes.

The New York Five #1

2011-03-20T11:37:00.003-04:00

W - Brian Wood
A - Ryan Kelly

I enjoy Brian Wood's slice-of-hip/young-life writing style as much as the next guy. It's easy to digest and it's fun to live vicariously through the panels of each tale. I did not read the New York Four (which was released in one volume under the short lived Minx imprint), but they summarize it for you at the beginning of issue 1, to get you up to speed. Cheers to that! You get an introduction to each character with brief background detail, profile style with likes, dislikes, mood at the time, and where they might have procured that awesome pair of boots they have on. They're a diverse group of gals that live in New York and attend NYU, while sharing an eensy, weensy apartment. Like the layers of an onion (holy cliche, Liz), you peel back their stories with each turn of the page. It's presented in a way that by the end of the series all the segments that you've seen will tie together into the grand narrative.

4 out of 5 hipster jokes

Deadpool Max Must-Have

2011-03-17T20:23:00.000-04:00

Writer - David Lapham
Artist - Kyle Baker

This is a collected edition of issues #1-3.

Alright. I can admit that I have a soft spot for Deadpool. He's just so dumb, and driven by primal instincts for stuff like boobs and crumpets. I'm not well versed in the Deadpool universe, but if I'm looking for something easy to read, it's a good choice! This story arc is about a guy named Bob, an agent. He tracks down and enlists Wade Wilson back into service. Little does Bob know, Deadpool has his own agenda...to take down The Great Hydra. Uncomfortable situations and hilarity ensue as Bob gets tangled up with Deadpool's distorted plans to kill each member of the Twelve Headed Serpent. David Lapham is a great writer and has a flair for the wacky. Kyle Baker is not an artist I would expect to see penciling such gratuitous nastiness, but he does a great job! Will I stay tuned to see what happens next? I sure will!

3.5 out of 5 snarky one liners

Jennifer Blood

2011-03-17T13:30:00.003-04:00

sucks

written by Garth Ennis......who is phoning it in
art by some guy who is better than bad

Victorian Undead

2011-03-14T17:03:00.009-04:00

Written by Ian Edington
Art by Davide Fabbri
collection of issues #1-6 $17.99
Disclaimer: this is not really a review,and more like a report of my initial impression

The tagline of this book and its subtitle is: Sherlock Holmes vs. the Undead!...
well score one for the DC marketing department because that is the book right there! A strange (is there any other kind?)comet passes over London and years later bizarre repercussions are felt! what are they you ponder?uhm.....well its zombies and uh...Sherlock Holmes his partner in un-crime Dr. Watson are gonna figgur it out!this comic is cool.seriously.The Holmes/Watson friendship is very balanced in between very chivalrous teasing and devout loyalty and respect.These guys are real friends and have been "in the $#!+" together for a some time.While on the trail dark secrets from London and Holmes personal past are dredged from underground (literally!bwah!).No stuffed shirt costume drama here folks! Gore and bludgeoning are intact! Holmes lops the undeads heads off with a kukri dagger!tanks roam the streets,turning zombies into goo!Biological tampering! underworld crime!
While battling the scourge of rising dead,Holmes and Watson have this exchange:
Watson: There's no bloody stopping them!
Holmes: Aim for the head,that seems to have the desired effect!
(then removes a zombies head with the aforementioned awesome dagger)
like,fer real.that just happened.and it was awesome.check it out!
....also if ya dig this,investigate into Holmes and Watson versus Mr.Hyde in the VICTORIAN UNDEAD SPECIAL and Dracula in the currently running mini series VICTORIAN UNDEAD II: HOLMES VS DRACULA!
3.5 turn of the century revolver cylinders blasting away out of 5

Uncanny X-Force: "Must Have" Issue

2011-03-11T15:34:00.004-05:00

Written by Rick Remender
Art by Jerome Opena

A little confusing at first, since Uncanny X-Force picks up where many years of Marvel comics have left off (specifically X-Force and the X-Men: Second Coming event), but the good things that my co-bloggers had to say about this title kept me reading this single collection of the series' first three issues. And it was totally worth it.

Apocalypse, one of the perennial shit-heads of the Marvel universe, has somehow inhabited the body of a young boy. Wassup with that? Will the X-Force kick his teeth, as they are so good at doing? Or will they save his dumb little ass? And meanwhile, every member of the team is so damned tortured...

On a side note, this is also the least annoying I've ever found Deadpool (Uncanny X-Force Team member) in any comic, ever. He is actually funny here, thanks to Remender.

Also, you should probably check out Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's 2001 take on the X-Force (later X-Statix). It is hilarious and good.

4 out of 5 Unstoppable Ends of the World

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1

2011-03-02T21:22:00.004-05:00

Written By Ethan Nicolle (age 6)
Art by Malachai Nicolle (age 30)

"Frustrated, Axe Cop lay down and took his daily two-minute nap. He dreamed about a T-Rex...that was crying..."

Holy......shit. This comic is...oh, man. Read it. Read it now.
Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier vs. EVERYBODY.

Faint bullets for Real Cops.
Wexter, the flying tyrannosaurus that breathes fire and has machine guns for arms.
Mr. Cup, who used to be a great warrior.

This was a web-comic that's now a print comic but...I don't care. Fucking read this NOW.

Five Jillion Everything Sticks out of Five Good Guy Machines.

The Man of Glass

2011-02-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

by Martin Flink

This is a delicate story with minimal text and beautiful art. Relive the memory of a man, a wife and a child. It's a simple and poetic story about regret.

100% awesome.

Fullmetal Alchemist

2011-02-07T21:15:00.004-05:00

Art and Story by Hiromu Arakawa

All right, so I'm late to the party. The Fullmetal Alchemist Party. Everybody already knows how sweet this book is, it's one of the most popular manga series of all time, the anime was amazing, blah blah blah.

Unless you don't! Unless, like me, you only occasionally dip your toe into the strange, exciting, sometimes weird and terrible world of manga and maybe this book slipped off your radar. Sure, you've heard the name before; you thought the name sounded kind of esoteric and dense, something only those hardcore manga nerds would dig. And that's not you, right? You read comics! You are cool!

But you were a fool. And so was I. Me especially. This book is as good as anything I've read in a loooong time. The world is so fleshed out and original; the characters are deeply, sometimes depressingly complex; the balance of funny and dramatic and epic is pitch perfect. I freaking love it.

Don't get me wrong. This actually IS manga for the manga-freaks. There are plenty of those tropes that we've come to love (and hate) sprinkled throughout the series' 24 (and counting) volumes: spontaneous rivers of tears streaming down faces, androgynous male and female lead characters, verbal description of exactly what a character is thinking and plotting, etc. But Arakawa has a deft hand and knows her characters and their culture backwards and forwards. The love and craft put into this book fucking LEAPS off the page. It is accessible to anyone, of nearly any age, not just the initiated.

I am hooked. You will be too. Unless you've already read it, which you probably have.

4.5 out of 5 Equivalent Exchanges.

Galacta: Daughter of Galactus

2011-01-30T16:56:00.000-05:00

Written by Adam Warren
Illustrated by Hector Sevilla Lujan (aka Elsevilla)

Liz versus the comic. It's taking me all day to read this comic. Don't let that reflect poorly on the book, I'm just sayin.

Galacta is hungry. Like, starving. Her problem is that she cares too much about the life on earth to do anything about her situation. She hates her dad for being an uncaring, unattentive, gluttonous beast and tweets about it constantly. Follow her train of thought and her quest for something to sate her ravenous hunger. The art suits the story quite well. It's goofy and relevant to the younger generation of today. Fun book! Check it out, it's just a one-shot.

4 out of 5 gigacalories

Steampunk Palin #1

2011-01-19T16:26:00.003-05:00

By Fred Perry, Ben Dunn

So, yeah. This exists. Sarah Palin as a steam-powered cyborg combating the evil "oil and nuke" conglomerate for control of the world's energy. Her sidekicks are Robama (I know) and John McCain. Our three heroes are setting aside their political differences for the greater good. Also, Al Gore is the bad guy. Spoiler Alert. "The Gore!"

Hoo boy. I read this shit. For you I read this. There's nothing really more to say about this book except the fact that there are almost as many pages of Palin pinups in the back as there are pages of fucking comic book. They are not hot.

I guess that this started out as an internet goof, with the cover floating around for a while before it got picked up by Antarctic Press. It probably should have stayed out there in meme-land. To be perfectly clear, this book is an unmitigated piece of shit. Steampunk Palin isn't bad enough to be campy and entertaining and it definitely, definitely isn't good.

I just hope that this comic doesn't in any way deter from an important political voice, one of the few politicians out there with the guts to tell it like it is. It certainly won't affect my decision come voting season, 2012, you betcha.

1 out 5 mangled moose carcasses

Best in 2010 cuz i said so.......

2010-12-28T14:56:00.010-05:00

by christian: assistant to the director of special projects

the "author" aged 8

BEST ONGOING SERIES
-Scalped (w/Jason Aaron a/r.m. Guerra)
still going,still awesome.still totally heart wrenching and effed up.this series also did two of the best single issues of the year back to back!bam.
-Sweet tooth (w/a Jeff Lemire)
the book so consistently good its almost pointless to speak of.if yer reading it you know what im saying.if not READ IT NOW!treat yo self.one of my pet peeves in comics is improperly drawn guns and Jeff cant drawn a realistic gun to save his life....but i don't care!this book is good it doesnt matter and the impact and weight of the violence is still intense and gripping reading.
-Sixth Gun (w/Cullen Bunn a/Brian Hurtt)
This one snuck up on me like my wife throwing me a surprise party.it has so many of my favorite things(well maybe just a few:horror,cowboys,awesome/mythical guns and no shittyness.terrible is totally absent from THIS production.)and i had no idea it was coming and would be so darn rad. The first issue was actually a free giveaway for free comic book day last year and it knocked my socks on my ass.plot is....good for nothing gunslinger/paranormal investigator has to stop a resurrected civil war general from getting six magic guns that will allow him to rule the world,good for nothings gotta get it together and save the day.read it if you dig awesome.

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL.....or trade,or whatever.im including reissues as well,so there.
(holy crap by the way.so many great collections came out this year it was a little crazy.my wallet is aching!!!!)

-Acme Novelty library vol.20 (w/a Chris ware)
its acme and it came out in 2010,so its one of the best.lets move on.
-Parker:The Outfit (w/a Darwyn Cooke)
its no secret that Curtis loves street level heroes and i love slightly despicable protagonists that i cant help but root for.Mr.Cooke's best work since the previous Parker adaptation.
-Scott Pilgrim vol.6 (w/a Bryan Lee O'Malley)
Great end to a phenomenal and hilarious series. there's a whole lot more substance to the Scott Pilgrim series than i initially thought. memories are strange and maybe Scott isn't the plucky and aloof wunderkid he thinks himself to be........

BEST MINI SERIES
-Bulletproof Coffin. strange in all the best ways possible
- Strange Tales 2. awesome "indie" talents running amok in the Marvel universe.MORE!
-Strange Science Fantasy (w/a scott morse)
Awe inspiring single issue stories combining all the greatest elements of pop culture into characters and then unleashing them against each other.wars of gear heads!space shoguns!answers to all mysteries!?fully painted by mr.morse with one page back ups by Paul Pope!

BEST SINGLE ISSUE
-Strange Science Fantasy #6 (w/a scott morse)the answers to everything.seriously
-Scalped #35 (w/jason aaron a/Danijel Zezelj)Scalped takes a much appreciated breather from the taught noose that is life on the "rez" and treats us to an emotional tour of an elderly couples love for each other.
-Detective Comics #859 (w/greg rucka a/j.h. williams) "the origin issue" This is an incredibly tight story! Why is Katy Kane batwoman?Why does her father help her even though she was discharged from the military? what part does "dont ask,dont tell" (but still be a complete a hole)play into her origin??? great stuff, strong characters,and j.h. has like 4 different styles he uses to showcase all the different facets of batwomans persona.my eyes are still reeling and this came out in december....of last year.

LARGEST DISSAPPOINTMENT/REALIZATION
-Kick Ass 2.so silly and sensationalized it made me realize the first series is stupid and the movie a piece of shit.
-Myself,for still reading the Walking Dead.every month for 80 months.
-Planetary finally concluding and with that,the realization that there will be no more Planetary. :(
- no volume of league of extraordinary gentlemen: century in 2010? balls.

Liz in 2010!

2010-12-26T14:39:00.002-05:00

At the behest of the powers that be, I have compiled a handful of appreciated titles from this past year. Do these all fit into the categories that their listed in? Probably not.

Best GN

h day (Renee French/Picturebox Publishing)
X'd Out (Charles Burns/Random House)
Guerillas (Brahm Revel/Image Comics) - I can already hear you judging me. Liz, you say, this was a serialized comic book and we all know that when serials are collected, they are a trade paperback, not a graphic novel. But wait! What happens when the series gets canceled without finishing in singles? And then! It gets released as one complete story, in one complete graphic novel? Huh? What about that? Yeah.

Best New Series

Chi's Sweet Home (Kanata Konami/Random House)
IZombie (W-Chris Roberson A-Mike Allred/DC Comics)
Meta 4 (Ted McKeever/Image Comics)

Best Single Issue

Scalped #35 (W-Jason Aaron A-Danijel Zezelj/DC Comics)

Best Mini Series

Demo II (W-Brian Wood A-Becky Cloonan/DC Comics)
Bulletproof Coffin (W-David Hine A-Shaky Kane/Image Comics)
Sky Doll (Various writers and artists in the newest incarnation of Barbucci and Canepa's creation/Soleil via Marvel Comics)

Best Ongoing

Sweet Tooth (Jeff Lemire/DC Comics)
Chew (W-John Layman A-Rob Guillory/Image Comics)
Walking Dead (W-Robert Kirkman A-Charlie Adlard/Image Comics) - I feel obligated to insert a little addendum here for the Walking Dead. I have been consistently reading this title since its release, on a monthly basis. For me, its become something like that girl you just can't help calling at 3am when you're drunk, because you know she'll always answer. Or, like a manageable heroin addiction. Just a dose here and there. You don't love it, but you have to do it. You might feel a little dirty or ashamed when it's over, but it's just something that has to happen. I can't get away from the Walking Dead. So, while it's listed in my 'Best Ongoing' category, I may not think it's the best, exactly, but I am reading it every month and usually having a conversation about it afterward.

Nick's 2010 List

2010-12-26T11:49:00.005-05:00

I'm glad we started up with the comic blogging again. I hope any of you out there reading this stuff enjoyed and were possibly informed by our bullshitting and ranting over the past few months. We'll try and keep it up, and, now that the holiday season is winding down, there should be more posts, more regularly. Probably.

Here are some of my favorite books of 2010. Here, also, are some other books that were released in 2010. Similar lists from different nerds will be popping up on this blog shortly.

Do all of these make sense? Were they released in 2010? Were they just released partly in 2010? Shut up, who cares:

Best Ongoing Series

Irredeemable (w/Mark Waid, a/Peter Krause)
Sweet Tooth (Jeff Lemire)
Rasl(Jeff Smith)

Best Graphic Novel

Acme Novelty (Chris Ware)
Revolver (Matt Kindt)
Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk (Ben Costa)

Best New Series

Biomega (Tsutomu Nihei)
Thor, The Mighty Avenger (w/Roger Langridge, a/Chris Samnee)
Sixth Gun(w/Cullen Brunn, a/Brian Hurtt)

Best Single Issue

Sweet Tooth #11: "Gonna Kill Everyone..." (Jeff Lemire)

Best Mini Series

Stumptown (w/Greg Rucka, a/Matthew Southworth)
Abe Sapien: The Abyssal Plain (w/Mignola, Arcudi, a/Peter Snejbjerg)
Scott Pilgrim (Brian Lee O'Malley)

Things I Was Really Looking Forward To That Ended Up Kind of Sucking

Incognito: Bad Influences (Ed Brubaker, what's happened to your work? Are you okay? I still believe in you.)

Superboy (I still don't believe Jeff Lemire actually wrote this.)

Daytripper (Stick to drawing, Moon/Ba.)

Books I Sincerely Meant To Read This Year But Didn't, For Whatever Reason

King City (Can a brother get a first issue?)
Joe the Barbarian
Morning Glories (so much hype!)

Biggest "Aw, Shit" Disappointment of 2010

Unknown Solider Getting Canceled by DC/Vertigo

Biggest "Aw, SHIT!!!!!" Awesomeness of 2010

Planetary #27 and the Conclusion of One of the Best Series of All Time

Acme Novelty Library #20

2010-12-12T12:50:00.005-05:00

Written and Drawn and Everything'd by Chris Ware

There's almost no point in reviewing some books. Every month we have the same conversation about some titles, some authors. It goes something like:

Counter Boy #1: (monotone, eyelids half closed) Hey, dude. Did you read the new Sweet Tooth?

Counter Boy #2: (yawning, shoulders drooped) Yeah, it was amazing. Like usual. Who gives a shit.

Counter Boy #1: I agree. It pretty much changed my life. What a fucking shocker.

This probably is a troubling indicator of how jaded and broken we are as human beings, but it does raise a valid(ish) point. Some creators are so good, some titles are so consistently fantastic, that reviewing them either casually or via blog is almost a redundant, needless exercise.

Chris Ware is ABSOLUTELY one of those creators. A new Acme Novelty Library is an Event for me and my peers. So, all that being said, here are my bullet point, redundant, needless-yet-still-true thoughts on the new piece of brilliance from Chris Ware, in no particular order:

Anyone who reads Chris Ware should contact three friends before hand to let them know. They should check on you periodically for the next week to fifteen days to make sure you're okay.
Amazing. Best yet? Maybe maybe maybe.
Main character not a sad sack, pathetic loser: he's a blow hard pathetic loser. What a difference! Seriously!
Panels are UNBELIEVABLY well done. Even for Chris Ware. Expresses birth and coming to consciousness as a human in a way that could only be done in a comic book. Shit.
This is part of a larger work. When can I read the whole thing? From start to finish? WHEN?!?
The binding and printing of this book is gorgeous. BUT, it's been pointed out to me: you can't roll a joint on this book. Cloth inlay.
This is a comic book!
I didn't cry. I swear I didn't cry. I didn't.

Sixteen out of Sixteen painful moments of self-realization while reading Acme Novelty Library #20.

TRON:Betrayal

2010-12-09T21:32:00.011-05:00

TRON: Betrayal
w - Jai Nitz a - Jeff Matsuda & Andie Tong
Yeesh! I'm in the middle of a full blown TRON flip out and this book ain't helping me break out of it!This book is the bridge between the original 1982 film and the upcoming sequel TRON: legacy (have you heard of this? yeah! there's a TRON sequel on the way!) WAIT! if you have not seen the original TRON then put TRON in the old dvd player, take of yer thinkin cap,but on your eyeglasses of visual awe and get ready for a great ride.The story explains some events that are only hinted at in the trailer so i'll try not to spoil it.......too much. Kevin Flynn (jeff "the Dude"bridges) has a baby on the way and is the new CEO of software mega-corp, Encom and has a little to many responsiblities on his plate. In addition, he is making major breakthroughs in the development of his world/society within the computer called "the grid."To maintain productivity in all areas of his life and be a good family man, Flynn attempts the impossible.......to make a perfect replica of himself within the computer to oversee "the grid." When this is a success and the replica,dubbed CLU begins to think for himself things get a little dire.
I thought this comic was pretty sweet.its hard for me to set aside my over enthusiasm for TRON and assess the comics strengths and weaknesses but it provided awesome answers to some burning questions i had for the sequel.The art makes the grid look cool as hell and thats mostly what i want from all things TRON. I dont need great characters are strong plot,i just want the world in the computer to look as awesome as possible and with as many light cycles as the frame can hold.Will the TRON:legacy be rad? i dunno.......im sure the acting will be blah,the plot dismissable but the grid will look effin' amazing!!!!! Check it out if wanna be totally in the know when TRON:Legacy drops in theateres Dec.17th.

3.5 out of 5 phenomenal and genre re-difining films released in 1982 there were overlooked and are now classics!!!! (Blade Runner,Conan the Barbarian,John Carpenter's The Thing,and....... Megaforce)

7 Billion Needles

2010-12-09T10:44:00.004-05:00

by Nobuaki Tadano

An anti-social high school girl on a field trip gets decimated by the brightest light she's ever seen, like she really gets destroyed. That's her skeleton on the cover there. Flash forward. She's back in school with her headphones on staring out the window, bored to death (no pun here) in class. A voice inside her head tells her that she is now a host (unwilling, to say the least) to an alien life form, and that it is here to save the world from another of it's kind. She eventually accepts her destiny and seeks out the bad guy. Sweet battles ensue and she loses a few body parts. Luckily, she can just pop them back into place. Thanks alien life form! I'm curious to see how the story progresses. The art is great and the story is good enough to keep me interested. This comic is loosely based on the novel 'Needle' by Hal Clement from 1950.

7 (billion) out of 10 needles.

Pang: The Wandering Shaolin Monk Vol. 1

2010-11-30T18:10:00.005-05:00

Written and Drawn by Ben Costa

I saw this big-ass, red, sweet looking hardcover show up during the unpacking of stuff at the olde comic shop one sunny Wednesday morning and I was all like, "whaddafudge izat?" Then I was distracted by a bumble bee or something and forgot about it.

A few days later me and the X-Man (see below, brilliant review of Serenity: A Shepard's Tale) were "hanging out" and out of the corner of my eye I see that redness, that round, bald head fleeing from something. The book's sitting on homeboy's backpack. "Hey, I'm trying to read that," I say, though I hadn't thought about the book since I'd seen it that fateful Wednesday morn.

"Well, tough nuts, dawg, that shit is MINE," Xmas replies, not making eye contact.

"Aww, don't be that way."

"You should have thought ahead, my man. I saw this mess in a Previews Magazine three months ago and knew it would be dope." Now he looks at me, and I know he's speaking Truth.

"Is it dope?" I ask sheepishly, begging with my eyes for the table scraps from his bounty of dopeness.

"I dunno." Xmas looks away and brushes at the air with the back of his palm. He won't even look at me! He knows I am like a peasant who couldn't think ahead; he is the proud noble who foresaw this terrible winter. "Take it. You read it."

And from his greatness, from his generosity, I received dopeness. Pang is awesome! The dialogue reads like a modern comedy (think Scott Pilgrim) with the snappiness and the all-the-time wit. But the whole book is CHOCK full of history: history of the Shaolin monks, history of feudal China, history of martial arts, etc and etc. And the words! There are so many effing words in this comic book! I spent days reading it! And couldn't put it down!

And that's not all. Ben Costa's panel work throughout this full color volume borders on brilliant. Like, almost Chris Ware-style good. He doesn't quite have the page room that Ware does, and as a result things can get kind of tricky and confusing, but there is ambition in the layout of this graphic novel. This guy is taking the comedic-historic-fictional-kung-fu comic book in a completely different direction.

And did I mention it's self published? Read!

4.5 out 5 comic shop counter boy beards.

Serenity: the Shepherds Tale

2010-11-21T13:53:00.013-05:00

written by-Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon picture boxes by Chris Samnee

Whoah.If yer a Serenity/Firefly fan you have been waiting for this story for years.This one of the best episodes from the brown coat 'verse and it was never even on t.v.! The long anticipated questions are answered.Where does he come from?Why is his knowledge of alliance weaponry so detailed?Why does he have high level Alliance clearance? Why find God in a bowl of soup? (to me God IS soup,but that's a whole post by itself.another time perhaps.) The graphic novel opens with Shepherd's final battle at the Haven mining colony and through a series of flashbacks (Memento style!) the legendary past of Shepherd Book is revealed.This totally delivered on my very high expectations.After the cancellation of Firefly and no more Serenity films forthcoming,this is the character i wanted more of, the most.Written by Zack Whedon (co-writer of Dr.Horrible) from an original story by Joss.Although its not directly written by Joss do not let this dissuade you.Zack nails the character and tone perfectly!I'm gonna start reading his other comic, "Terminator 1984" right now!......oh this is pretty cool.It takes place right at the end of the first movie and Kyle Reese is alive!?!?And some new time traveler and Sarah Conner are gonna break him out of same crazy research facility!?That's pretty awesome.ill definitely pick up the second issue! .....oh, sweet.I guess they're about to bust in this facility and.....oh snap.sorry y'all,i got sidetracked.Terminator '84 is pretty right on though.okay.right.Serenity.You could even read this book without seeing Firefly at all!If you like an awesome morality tales and character driven stories with a protagonist with a haunted past no reason ya wouldn't enjoy this bad lad.

5 outta 5 years of waiting totally worth it.

Mesmo Delivery

2010-11-20T12:25:00.006-05:00

by Rafael Grampa

This is a review of Mesmo Delivery, but also a tirade about one of the best artist/writer/comic-ticians that I've seen in a long time. It's a great book, to be sure. An ex-boxer named Rufo gets a job with Mesmo Delivery delivering packages unknown. He's partnered up with a skinny Elvis impersonator by the name of Sangrecco. What happens next can't be expected or explained, but I assure you it's incredible. Grampa's art stands out. I'm gonna start name dropping, ready? Paul Pope, Geoff Darrow, Frank Quitely, and Nathan Fox. He reminds me all of all these guys in different ways, but has a style all his own. He writes, draws, and colors his own stuff, which is incredible! The layout and panel work are amazing! The way he drives his stories with total design rules. A great comic book is everything working in concert; art, layout, color, lettering, all of it. Rafael Grampa is a master of the comic book medium and should not be missed. Look for him on some mainstream publishers in the near future. Daredevil and Batman are both lookin reeeeeal good, as you can see below.

5 out 5 harvested human organs

Percy Gloom

2010-11-20T11:24:00.008-05:00

by Cathy Malkasian

Cathy Malkasian has made the jump from animation to print! This woman is responsible for shows like: The Wild Thornberry's, Rugrats, and Aaah! Real Monsters. A veritable Nickelodeon legend! Humorous and bewitching at the same time, Percy Gloom is a unique gem of a story. Living with his mother in an unreal world of secret societies, bureaucratic security, and the looming prophecy of the Gloom death-slap that killed his own father, lazy-eyed Percy Gloom fights to overcome the loss of his wife, Lila, to a truth-pointing, lotharian, cult-leader. Approached by his doctor to help protect some special people and given advice by some talking goats, Percy comes to terms with his place in the gloomy world and finds himself reaching enlightenment (literally). She has done an excellent job transitioning from all-ages television into classy, grown up stories for insightful adults. The art is beautiful and draws you into Percy's sad existence with ease.

8.5 out of 10 ridiculous product warning labels.

Also, check out Temperance, her newest book. Temperance is an eyewitness's account of recovery and awakening. This graphic novel works on two levels. It considers the concepts of violence, stories, and belief, and their place in holding a culture together, slyly echoing contemporary political issues in a nation at a stressful time currently at war with a ubiquitous enemy. Sagacious and intricate, good shit.

Four Eyes

2010-11-19T14:10:00.003-05:00

Written by Joe Kelly
Illustrated by Max Fiumara

Queens, New York 1934. America struggles in the grip of the Great Depression, and ten-year old Enrico is willing to make any sacrifice to take care of his mother. Even if it means taking a job in the one place he's forbidden to go...the ring of fire where dragons are trained and fought for cash and glory.

Whaaaaaaaaaa?! Dragons in the criminal underworld of the Great Depression!? This book is great!! It inspires emotions across the spectrum...love, sadness, excitement, fear. Enrico is the bad-assest little bad-ass ever! He stands up for his mother with conviction and does everything in (and beyond) his power to be the man of the house. The story is brimming over with honor, clandestine activities, and heart warming moments. No spoilers here. Read this book, and be prepared to beg for more.

9* out of 10 scaly beasts in a ring of fire.

*this book only receives a less than perfect score for leaving me wanting so much more*

Batman Incorporated

2010-11-18T18:37:00.007-05:00

'w-Grant "the concept" Morrison a-Yanick Paquette
Bruce Wayne is back!How?Don't worry about.Why have him dissapear in the first place? Lets not talk about it.Batman, Inc. follows Bruce Wayne resume the mantle of Batman and going on some serious globetrotting.The reason for these international travels? Why, what any good corporate CEO and worlds greatest detective would do........recruit and spread their brand! Thats right y'all,Batman traveling the globe trying to make unified vigilante agency.Think about it......Scandavian Batman!Palau Batman!It's awesome.First stop? Tokyo to battle Lord Death Man! (no seriously)Come, travel the globe with Bruce Wayne and a very uhm lets say....friendly Catwoman as they solve murders and assemble a world wide Bat-police force!
the art is very rad as well,.....Batman's new metal codpiece is really strange and slightly distracting though.
3.5 out of 5 robins

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

2010-11-16T21:25:00.007-05:00

Written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou
Art by Alecos Papadatos

More entertaining than any comic about the foundational quest in mathematics or logician Bertrand Russel has any right to be.

Twelve out of fourteen brilliant mathematicians made obsolete by computers.

Flink

2010-11-14T15:29:00.002-05:00

by Doug Tennapel

A boy survives a plane crash and is rescued by a Bigfoot named Flink. They form a close bond by learning about the loss of each other's family members. Emotions run hot in this one. It's truly an endearing story of misunderstanding and misinformation. You might just shed a tear.

All age appropriate. 4 out of 5 sassy quatches.

HIT MONKEY

2010-11-14T14:52:00.006-05:00

"THE WORLDS GREATEST ASSASSIN"

"Killer of Killers"

this is a book about a japanese snow monkey that gets possessed by the soul of an assassin. and then, he fights bullseye. Dude, he is a monkey that shoots guns , outsmarts bad guys, wears a suit and SHOOTS GUNS WITH HIS FEET!! do you love shit like this?

well i certainly do.

HIT MONKEY ROCKS!

this book is also totally violent! YAYeah!!

Superman: Earth One

2010-11-14T12:41:00.004-05:00

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Shane Davis

Let's do a thought experiment: you are Superman. You're twenty year old, moving from Smallville to Metropolis, the Big City, for the first time. You're still wet behind the ears, kind of a hayseed, but still, you know, fucking Superman. And you know this. The big question: do you become the world's first superhero, and also the world's biggest freak show, or do you use your superpowers to get rich and get laid? Quite a pickle. And you should make up your mind, because there's an alien invasion in like, twenty minutes and they are super-pissed about something...

I really like this book. Released as a hardcover from comic book super-scribe J. Michael Straczynski (The Twelve, Babylon 5), Superman: Earth One is officially the hot-shit of the minute. The second printing was announced before the first even hit the streets and that first run is nowhere to be seen, sold out as soon as it materialized. And there's good reason for that. Many attempts have been made by many writers to bring Superhero X "into the twenty-first century." The results of these endeavors are generally mixed, typically erring on the side of pandering. References to Twitter and Facebook, after all, aren't gonna cut it. But Superman: Earth One feels contemporary without resorting to these kinds of ploys. I could go on about Clark Kent as a metaphor for our culture in the new century--brimming with possibility but also directionless, a little vain, probably dangerous--but my co-bloggers would make me eat no end of shit for this.

More than anything, S:EO reaffirmed what working in a comic shop has made inescapably clear over the past few years: there are no bad superheroes, only bad writers. Even the most well-worn, cliche ridden funny-book characters can seem relevant and interesting in the hands of a proper wordsmith. And you can't get much more worn than old Supes.

Plus there's a pretty good giant-robot fight in the third act.

7 out of 8 iPods streaming YouTube videos of Justin Bieber.

BULLETPROOF COFFIN

2010-11-13T18:52:00.008-05:00

mc - David Hine
on the beat - Shaky Kane

"Someone once wrote that the moon is a balloon. They were wrong. It is, in fact, a pockmarked skull. A skull that gazes down in baleful disapproval of our nocturnal activities." -Destroyovski 1967

This book is a trip down the bunnyhole of pseudo comic history that force feeds you dopeness. The layout and design of this book has Boner city written all over it. Its the story of this regular schmoe (he's a good dude) Steve Newman who has a wife and (creepy) kids that wouldn't notice if he never came home. He's got a terrible job that he doesn't mind doing...and a love for old comics. Golden Nuggets comics. Comics created by "the creators". By the end of number one he has found the suit of one of his favorite characters, The Coffin Fly, and who knew(?) it fits fucking perfect. He dons it and (time?) travels to crazy places and teams up with crazy awesome heroes...but is it a dream? What happens when these far out dreams bleed into reality?? This is a 6 part comic and part six is about to come out. They have ill bonus shit like dope fake ads for the old timey books that are all on topic and beautiful. EVEN THE (new)OLD COMICS THEMSELVES ARE IN THERE! There's no lame ass ads in these...none. No ufc dudes in their undies or the ruining of a story arc with a mountain dew ad with skateboarding in it. Nope, its like they actually fucking care.

UFO CULT/RED WRAITH/RAMONA QUEEN OF THE STONEAGE/THE UNFORGIVING EYE/THE SHADOW MEN

THIS IS MY PICK FOR BOOK OF THE YEAR.

I'm giving it an 8 babes to every dude at a dance party, and i know you like those odds ;)

Rambo 3.5

2010-11-13T18:21:00.000-05:00

by Jim Rugg

You won't find this comic on many shelves, but if you see it on ours you should certainly purchase it. 100% Bro-tastic! John Rambo + George Bush = one of a kind action. Big guns, big muscles, big plans! Jim Rugg delivers an awesome punch of machismo to the face of every Rambo fan. Buy it. Love it. Tell your friends.

Burying Sandwiches

2010-11-13T17:57:00.001-05:00

by Rob Sato

This is the story of a girl's tumultuous, lifelong relationship with food. Janice Takeda doesn't care much for it. From a very young age she has struggled with the idea of eating. The whole process sickened her and by the age of nine she had decided to never eat again...UNTIL, the ghosts appeared. They took care of her food for her, and she quite enjoyed their company. One day, in the middle of a tirade about proper etiquette, she was overtaken by the urge to devour these critters. And, no surprise to her, they were delicious! The illustration is superb with heavy black ink and meticulous attention to detail. This book is, hands down, my favorite comic ever. I have recommended it countless times, complete with a money back guarantee, and a copy has never been returned. It's absolutely delightful.

Rock solid 10 out of 10.

Orange

2010-11-13T15:32:00.000-05:00

by Benjamin

A beautifully illustrated story of selfish teen angst. Orange is a teenager that's having a hard time making the transition from girl to woman. Everything is fake. Nothing matters. The story opens with her standing on the edge of a rooftop with suicide note in hand. We then backtrack to get some history on her situation, finally coming back to the opening in the end. Benjamin generally works in digital painting using a pen with a graphics tablet and image editing software. Whatever he's doing, it looks fantastic! The story is mildly irritating, as most teenagers can be. The lush art and the cuteness of the main character make it forgivable. And, lets be realistic, being a teenager really isn't easy.

25 oranges out of a bushel

Dragon Puncher

2010-11-12T11:39:00.001-05:00

by James Kochalka

An all-ages funfest! With clever use of photos and illustration, this book delivers satisfaction. Meet the Dragon Puncher, a cute but ruthless kitty in an armored battle suit, dedicated to defeating dangerous dragons wherever they may be. The Dragon Puncher and his would-be sidekick Spoony-E (a fuzzy little fellow armed with a wooden spoon) confront a gigantic, drooling dragon and have a ridiculous, hilarious brawl. The balance of words to pictures will appeal to even the most ADD of readers. Jump on it, kemo sabe.

Enjoyment factor alone gives this book 10 out of 10 toes.

Dungeons and Dragons #1

2010-11-12T11:07:00.002-05:00

Written by John Rogers
Art by Andrea Di Vito

I felt hopeful reading it, being a huge fan of the animated television series and a player of the game (way back when, and hopefully again in the near future). The cover art appealed to me more than the interior art. The illustration is a little too polished for my taste, I need some grime on my adventurers. The story is on point. It contains all the classic elements of a fantasy adventure story; the witty warrior, the snooty elf, the arrogant dwarf, the cute and lovable thief, and the sexy magic user. Will this combination of scoundrels find the origin of the zombies invading their town?! Their interactions are comical and the action is high. The cliffhanger ending invites the reader back for another issue. Will I take the bait?

Overall, I'd give it 6 out of 10 eyes on a Beholder.

Cassanova Relaunch

2010-11-09T20:52:00.006-05:00

Casanova
Written by Matt Fraction
Pencils by Gabriel Ba

So. In the nether reaches of time (2006), before they were two of the biggest names in the comic book industry, Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba made this incredibly sweet book called Casanova. It's about a secret agent (sort of) who (basically) slips into an alternate universe full of blackmail, double/triple agents, and weird, pan-sexual monsters (among other things). There was shooting and sexing and time traveling and so on. I read the hell out of this book.

Fast forward a couple of years. Casanova runs for 14 issues under the banner of Image Comics before it is shit-canned. What was planned as a seven story-arc series was cut short at two. And the Sadness ensued. Do independent minded books stand a chance in this work-a-day world? Is there no room for the weird? For the pan-sexual monsters?

But then...hope! Marvel comics picked up Casanova under their "Icon" imprint and began republishing the series, from issue #1, earlier this year. The new edition is fully re-colored and features occasional extra content from Ba's brother and collaborator Fabio Moon. All 14 parts of the original series will be released on a monthly basis; four have been released so far. When the original run is complete, the creators plan to pick the series back up for the much anticipated third volume, comprising new issues 15-21.

"But what is the point?" you might ask. Here's the point: it seems to me that because this printing was toted as a "relaunch," Casanova might have slipped under the radar of those who didn't read it the first time around. And that is crying shame. Go snag Casanova #1 from your local comic book shop. You will be hooked. Get on board for this kick-ass monthly book that, lucky for us, was brought back to life by smart people. It'll be like we live in an alternate universe where Casanova was never canceled in the first place...

2010-11-03T14:47:00.005-04:00

Unknown Soldier #25

Written by Joshua Dysart

Pencils by Alberto Ponticelli

Vertigo's relaunch of Unknown Solider ended today with issue number 25. It was an unbelievable banger of a comic book. Though DC cancelled the series unilaterally, Dysart wrapped that shit up with the best story arc yet and I heard that Ponticelli literally drew his ass off. He is without ass. He left all of it on the pages of Unknown Solider #25.

For my money, this series has been the best thing coming out in single issues for the past two years. If you haven't checked this one out yet, do yourself a favor and scoop up the first trade paperback collecting issues #1-6.

The Marvels Project #1

2009-08-15T15:13:00.007-04:00

Written by Ed Brubaker (Criminal, Captain America)
Pencils by Steve Epting (Captain America)

The Marvel 70th Anniversary celebrated last Tuesday, Aug. 11 saw the release of two new titles from the House of Idea(s), The Marvels Project being one of them. In the tradition of Marvels (and maybe even DC's Kingdom Come), The Marvels Project runs down the reaction of us "normies" to the presence of supernatural, super powerful beings among us. The "normy" doing the running down in this case is a little known (to me anyway) hero named Angel from way back, when Marvel was still called "Timely Comics" and comics cost a strawpenny and nobody told lies. In this, the first issue, Angel is still Dr. Holloway and as he toys with the idea of fighting crime he relates the state of late 1930s America on the brink of war with Germany. Plus the American Government has invented the Human Torch. Plus Germany has been conducting experiments on Sea-People and the Prince of Atlantis is pissed. Fascinating Times, indeed.

Ed Brubaker is an unstoppable force. I don't want to stop him. Incognito is one of the best books out there, Captain America still kicks ass and Criminal? Come on. I think one of the things that makes his writing so sweet is his whole matter-of-fact approach to the fantastic. He just completely nails the tone of a life weary, unbiased observer who gets the outlandishness of what he's seeing but still wants to find out what happens next. The Marvels Project is this to the umpth degree. I fucking love it. You might think by this point that there was little left to work with when it comes to this theme of super-hero realism but that was before Brubaker got his mitts on it.

Read The Marvels Project, you won't be sorry.

"His hands looked like they were made by a sculptor who worked in wood, and thought big."

2009-07-22T11:57:00.017-04:00

Parker:the Hunter
w/a- Darwyn Cooke adapted from the novel by Richard Stark (pseudonym of Donald Westlake)
Parker:the hunter? more like parker:the shit! this book was so effin great!i have been anticipating the release of this since it was announced last july,and it totally delivered.The Hunter is the story of meticulous planner and career criminal Parker who is double crossed on a heist and left for dead by his associates and his wife.Parker's not having that and comes back to New York lookin for his money from the job......and he's going to get it.Darwyn Cooke is one of the most amazing and unique illustrators ever,and he can tell a phenomenal story as well! (dc:new frontier,the first 13 issues of the spirit relaunch!) Parker is a very personal project for Cooke and he clearly has taken his time with the adapting and design of gorgeous visuals.the art is all two tone,black with a water colored blue on top. it is simultaneously hard and light,much like the character parker himself.he is out for revenge but has no extreme emotions (love,fear,hate,happiness!).the bold ink is the perfect compliment to his solid drive for revenge,while the watercolor brushing mirrors his ethereal emotions and desire. When thinking of his ex-wife Parker ponders "He hated her.he hated her and he loved her and he'd never felt either emotion for anyone before.never love,never hate,never for anyone.She put him here." check out a preview here
An amazing character that is not immediately likable (but fun to watch get turned loose) and an amazing effort from one of the mediums top talents.
-thank you mr.cooke.
In celebration of the bad-assery of The Hunter we will be having a movie showing of Payback:the Directors Cut.payback is adapted from the same source material as "the hunter" and stars mel Gibson as "Porter".this film is real awesome-ness and is directed by Brian Helgeland (oscar winner for best adapted screenplay-l.a. confidential ,shit!) come hang with us and watch "parker/porter" wreak havoc on the criminal underworld in search of his cut.if you've seen payback and NOT the directors cut it is a totally different and better film then the theatrical but.less gibson,more Helgeland.you're in for a treat.

poster by the lovely jeremy wheeler. peep it!

GET READY TO PARTY!

2009-07-21T12:48:00.009-04:00

PLANETARY #27 IS SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE!!!!!!! OCTOBER 7th!!there are colored pages! dc/wildstorm knows they cant fuck this up!get ready for closure on one of the worlds greatest works of fiction.and for those that have never read it (shame on you,but i understand) and were waiting for it to be finished before diving in........get read to have your mind blown.......and probably your eardrums as well.we'll be ranting about this one,i can tell you!
congratulations mssr's ellis,cassaday,and madame depuy martin.

- 11 out of 10 for having the balls to announce this.
- all this awesomeness depicted on this cover actually happens in the series
READ IT! lets not have a repeat of the "criminal incident"

Green Lantern: Blackest Night #1

2009-07-19T16:19:00.002-04:00

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE! I've never really tried reading Green Lantern before. THIS WAS AWESOME! READ IT! Geoff Johns is the man!

T-Minus: the Race to the Moon

2009-07-19T15:52:00.009-04:00

Here's the thing: I love historical graphic novels (comic books, etc.). Love 'em. Here's another thing: T-Minus by Jim Ottaviani and co. is maybe the best one I've ever read. On top of making the whole thing really funny and accessible (for those of us not aeronautic engineers or mathematicians), he doesn't spare the technical details that give weight to the whole daunting, mind-fuck of an endeavour that is Putting a Man on the Moon.

Read this, I'm serious. And I heard a rumor that Jim O. himself is having a release party for the book at Vault of Midnight this Monday...

Greek Street #1

2009-07-05T11:43:00.003-04:00

Are you tired of modern reinterpretations of classic literature? Me too.

Invincible 10: Who's The Boss?

2009-06-29T21:41:00.003-04:00

This is the book I've been waiting for since I started reading Invincible. Curtis turned me on to Invincible around the time the third trade was out and I've been hooked ever since. But this one... wow. If you're one of those people who think Robert Kirkman is overrated, this book is the evidence that you are wrong. The action is spectacular and truly kinetic. The characters continue to develop and change as the story progresses. The story is engaging and the dialogue is spot on. This is how a Superhero book is done.

Plus the title of every trade is the title of a sitcom while also relating to the events in the book. Genius!

If you're not reading Invincible, you should be. If you are, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.

20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa

2009-06-21T12:34:00.002-04:00

URASAWA IS THE NEW OSAMA TEZUKA. There, I said it.

I have no idea what's going on. One of those crazy "childhood friends have to reunite as adults to fight a malevolent force from their youth" kind of Stephen King stories. The story jumps around in time and it's fucking cool. 3 volumes of 22 are available in English so far. From Naoki Urasawa, author of Monster and Pluto. Get in on the ground floor, sucker!

Unwritten #2

2009-06-21T12:24:00.003-04:00

I've been on the fence with Mike Carey. I've become concerned that he's kind of a one-trick pony. My fears were confirmed with the first issue of Unwritten. But since I like the guy, and I loved his work on Lucifer and Hellblazer, I decided to stick with it a little while longer. I'm glad I did. He breaks down hundreds of years of literary history in a matter of pages and it's somehow interesting whether you give a shit about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Charles Dickens or not. He's really up there with Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore in that respect. Weeeeeeee!

wolverine:old man logan giant size dropping 9/23!

2009-06-16T11:06:00.004-04:00

So i think old man logan has been totally kick ass! yeah,more so then uh....kick-ass.heh!i like THIS mark millar.no half ass political metaphors to cloud the phenomenal action and awesome serial storytelling.SNIKT mofos!i dont even care about the delays (allthough they are hilarious!) i mean im still waiting for the last issue of planetary! so i will continue to wait until the conclusion that drops 9/23! we'll probably see a hardcover collection around november-ish.if you haven't checked this one yet all the singles are in print,scwoop em up.do you like wolverine?word,me too!do you like Unforgiven? shit yeah, you KNOW i do too! then read this piece!
peace.

The Unwritten #1

2009-05-19T21:41:00.002-04:00

Of all the new books coming out recently this one had me the most excited. Vertigo was really pushing this, there were three or four page previews in the back of Hellblazer and such for awhile, and I liked what I saw. The premise seemed strong, the art had that mix of style and accessibility that I like so much, Mike Carey was on board. And it was about stories. I love stories about stories. I know that sounds weird but it's true. Well issue #1 is finally out and I am not disappointed. I only hope that Mike Carey and Peter Gross truly realize what they've got on their hands (I get the feeling they do) because it feels like something special to me. It's only the first issue so I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I dig it, and I think it has legs. I don't want to lay out the premise for you because the way they set it all up is neat and much more fun to read if you don't really know where it's heading. And best of all it's only a dollar! Genius! I hope this comic sells through the roof so more publishers can see what a brilliant marketing strategy this is. Do you know how many more comics I would give a chance to if the first issue was only a dollar? Hell, I'd buy 'em all.

Keep and eye on this one. If you like comics that are well written, well drawn, and not the same old crap you've been reading since forever, you could do a whole lot worse. Go scoop it up. It's only a buck, and if you're really that cheap, I'll even spot you that.

Pluto #1-2

2009-04-26T12:39:00.004-04:00

I've been sitting here for awhile trying to think of what to say about Pluto besides “you must read this book.” I'm having trouble. There's just so much good here.

Story: someone is gunning for the seven greatest robots in the world, as well a few scattered “Robots Rights” advocates. Detective Gesicht is put on the case, a robot himself, and incidentally one of the seven supposedly targeted by the killer. This is a retelling of the “The Greatest Robot on Earth” story arc from Astro Boy, by the legendary Osamu Tezuka. You don't need to have read any Astro Boy to get down with this, but if you haven't this may just inspire you to explore the phenomenon for yourself. If you are familiar with the source material then you will find much to knowingly nod and smile about. The themes concerning the nature of humanity and what it means to be “alive”, themes that made up the central concept behind Astro Boy, are well preserved and even expanded upon in Pluto. the way these supposedly “emotionless” characters are brought to life is remarkable.

Art: Naoki Urasawa has managed something pretty amazing in these pages. He has taken Tezuka's somewhat “cartoony” (for lack of a better term) style and brought it into the real world, while maintaining the unique character aesthetic and expressions that Tezuka is known for. Fusing these two ideas with his own style Urasawa creates a thing of beauty. The story is wonderful, but the art brings an emotion and drama to it that raises the work to a whole new level.

So, you really should read this book. Don't be afraid that it's manga, or that it reads right-to-left, or that it comes from something you may be unfamiliar with. None of that matters. This is good stuff, brilliant science fiction, and it will sweep you away in moments. If it doesn't then it's possible you may not have a soul. You might want to get that checked out.

Cursed Pirate Girl #0

2009-04-26T12:36:00.001-04:00

It's a funny thing, I enjoyed the four page story in this “preview” more than I've enjoyed half the stuff I've been reading lately. Having said that, and having seen some of the preview work for this series, I believe it is one to watch, and now that it finally has a publisher, we can do that. Jeremy Bastian's art style is wonderfully unique and expressive. It ranges from absurd to realistic, sometimes even in the same panel. He is also quite funny. Let me give you a sample: “The worst pirate I ever seen went by the name Captain Squeak. When we came up on his ship he ordered his men to chop down their own mast, and then throw their cannons overboard. Then them buggers attacked us... with bananas! Turns out 'ol Captain Squeak was just two monkeys and a portrait of Queen Mirl of Gerrick.” Now that is funny. I urge you to put this on your pull list immediately. I've just got this funny feeling that it's going to rock.

Ignition City #1-2

2009-04-26T12:28:00.003-04:00

Warren Ellis has become some sort of crazy, multi-media juggernaut. The sheer volume of work that he is currently producing makes it difficult for his fans to keep up with what he's working on. I'm a big fan of Warren Ellis, some of his books are some of my all time favorite comics, so it's kind of strange that I find his abundant presence dismaying. It has become obvious to me, and others, that he's spreading himself thin, and that his work is suffering somewhat as a result. I can no longer blindly pick up a book with his name on it, secure in the knowledge that it will melt my face off. He is no longer as consistent as he once was. So what about this “Ignition City”? It has potential. I'm not terribly thrilled with the art style, but it works. So far the story is interesting, interesting enough to see where it's going anyway. I'm willing to give it a chance to improve, only because I think it may, if I knew for sure that it was only going to be as good as it is now I wouldn't bother reading anymore.

The Boys #1-29

2009-04-05T12:57:00.006-04:00

Okay, everyone who isn't reading "The Boys" please raise your hand. Good, I'd like all of you to stay after class for a well-deserved beating. Here's why:

"The Boys" takes place in a world where super heroes and villains are commonplace, they're celebrities, but all they really do is run around making a mess of things. The story centers around "Wee" Hughie, whose girlfriend is caught in the crossfire of a super hero/super villain battle and is quite messily killed. Hughie is subsequently tapped by a covert, government group know simply as The Boys, each member having some sort of axe to grind with super heroes. They're job is to observe and, if necessary, police the super powered community (though, honestly, they're pretty much just looking for an excuse to take them out). The Boys are super powered themselves, giving them the necessary muscle to deal with their enemies. The resulting altercations are wonderfully brutal and gory, as they realistically would be.

Garth Ennis (Preacher, Crossed) is in full swing with this one, clearly loving every moment of the ride, and pulling zero punches along the way. I get that same feeling I got when I was reading "Preacher" all those years ago. This confluence of entertaining violence, depraved sexual exploits, and a well crafted storyline are not something you see every day, and for good reason, because it's a damn hard trick to pull off. Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan, Punisher) delivers as well, with his accessible yet unique style, bringing the story to life beautifully. You can almost feel every face crushing punch and rent limb.

"The Boys" is by far my favorite comic right now, I eagerly await its arrival every month and immediately devour its contents at the first available opportunity. It's super heroes as they would actually be in the real world; arrogant, selfish, power-drunk bastards with no concern for anyone. It's wonderfully violent and depraved, with engaging characters and terrific dialogue, often extremely hilarious, all topped off with some poignant social commentary (and lots of boobs). It's Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson at their best.

The first 22 issues have already been collected, so get your ass down to The Vault and start reading.

Final Crisis #1-7

2009-03-28T23:35:00.007-04:00

Yet another reminder of why Crossover Event titles suck balls. Don't waste your money. Seriously, it's a complete mess. I can't even tell you what happened because I didn't understand any of it. Something to do with Darkseid and something called "Anti-Life" and every frickin' Super Hero that's ever been in a DC comic. Oh and Batman dies (right, like that'll take). I don't know, maybe I missed something amidst the twenty different stories being told simultaneously, but, since I couldn't possibly muster the will to go back and read it all again, I guess I'll never know. I'm extremely disappointed in Grant Morrison (whom I've always been a huge fan of) who, despite his intelligence and imagination, somehow crafted this disaster. Of course it's not entirely his fault. Everyone at DC Editorial should be ashamed of themselves. Hey guys, it's called "creating a cohesive storyline". Look it up. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, I suppose there are some interesting ideas caught up in all this, but the execution was just so sloppy that they must've gotten lost in the chaos. I really don't like being so negative but I'm haveing trouble coming up with something positive to say here. I guess bringing Barry Allen back was pretty cool. I always liked Barry.

Go pick up the Crisis On Infinite Earths trade instead, which is a fine example of how this sort of thing should be done.

Groom Lake #1

2009-03-24T22:37:00.003-04:00

Smoking aliens, giant killer robots, hillbillies being abducted, secret government conspiracies, these are the things that make up Chris Ryall (IDW Editor-In-Chief) and Ben Templesmith's (Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Fell) new book Groom Lake. Most of you are probably all too familiar with the whole Area 51/Project Blue Book thing by now, unless you've been living in a cave for fifty years, so you'll come to this book with certain expectations. Rest assured they will all be met and promptly violated. This is not new ground we're treading, to be sure, but that's okay, because I like the direction we're heading. This being a first issue it's mostly about setting up the story, introducing the characters, and generally laying the ground work for what's to come.

The characters are fun (Leticia Pope, the kiss-my-ass government agent and Archibald, our smoking goofball alien buddy) and the few story tidbits have piqued my curiosity. Templesmith's art is, as always, amazing and he delivers the gross stuff with his trademark zeal. If the creators can properly expand on the concept without falling prey to cliches (an easy thing to do with this subject) then we could have a winner. The burning question this issue leaves me with is... did I really just see a guy with a cute, little puppy grafted onto his "nether regions"?

Moneyeyes is (at long last) here, feel free to breathe a sigh of relief.

2009-03-24T21:35:00.007-04:00

So we were picking on Curtis last Saturday down at The Vault about things being a little "thin" around here and I happened to mention that I wouldn't mind dropping by for the occasional long winded diatribe about this or that comic. So he said "Sure!" and here we are. So who is this Jamie A.K.A. Moneyeyes anyway?

1. Vault patron from its inception. It is my home away from home and all its employees are my extended family.

2. Comics reader for 25 years. I know my shit, believe it!

3. Master (not) storyteller and writer of fiction.

That about covers it, anything else (FBI investigations, supposed links to organized crime, accusations of bizarre human mutation experiments) is completely superfluous.

I'm gonna try to keep this weekly, so check back often. Now let's talk about some comics.

The Great Unknown #1 (of 5)

2009-02-22T17:00:00.002-05:00

A lot of Image titles fall flat, or completely disappear forever (Forsaken, Flak Riot, Ex Patriate, Pirates of Coney Island, Hector Plasm). But I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter because Image is a publisher who takes risks. Sometimes those risks pay off big-time (Hawaiian Dick, Battle Hymn, Nightly News). I didn't really pay much attention to The Great Unknown when it was solicited, but it had a neat cover (I like puzzles) and Christian put it on my radar (Christian and I agree 86% of the time). This was a really promising first issue. It had a few neat factoids and references to important but obscure historical figures. It was funny. The main character is nobody new--an intelligent slacker from a middle-class family who has big dreams but never "applies himself" to his "full potential". He has the brain of Nikola Tesla but the attitude of Scott Pilgrim. I really hate distributing comics along the spectrum of high and low-art, but this book sits nicely right between the artsy Omega: the Unknown (maybe only because of the similarities between the title and main characters) and the punky Teenagers From Mars (oh my god, please read it). Can't wait for the second ish.

4 (out of 5) over-used parentheticals and asides,
-sanford c bledsoe iii

angel of death.......again,i know.

2009-02-22T16:25:00.002-05:00

the ed brubaker scripted "angel of death" premieres on crackle.com on monday,march 2nd.new 8-10 minute episodes will appear every weekday through march 13th.peep it.also homies new book with sean phillips is very awesome!its called "incognito" and is about a supervillain in witness protection.....thats the pitch,i dont want to say much else.issue #2 just came out so hop onboard!

Bad Dog #1

2009-02-14T10:17:00.005-05:00

Joe Kelly (I Kill Giants, Ben 10) knows how to use swear words. I've got my eye on this son of a bitch; I Kill Giants and Four Eyes are must reads and now, so is Bad Dog. Werewolf Bounty Hunter and his born again, alcoholic, shit-heel partner hunt down low-lifes, though they themselves are low-lifes. I can't think of anybody doing better dialogue in comics right now than Joe Kelly across his titles. Does it bother you that "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is already a thing, that in fact the terrible theme song for that show acutally uses the words "I am the dog / the big Bad Dog"? No, it doesn't. Get over it.

One thing: Diego Greco, making his American Debut with this title, gives the whole thing an overall more cartoony effect than is cool. The titular Bad Dog looks more like a golden retreiver than a fucking werewolf and that is upsetting. Nevertheless, read this shit, you'll be back for more.

-Nick

The Stand: Captain Trips #1-5

2009-02-01T17:04:00.003-05:00

As a self-described "anti-capitalist", I imagine the end of the world often. But, shit, man--I hope it doesn't happen like it does in this comic. I had the flu last week and kept hoping I didn't have Captain Trips. I don't want to die violently spewing snot all over my shirt. I don't think my mom could handle finding me like that. Anyway, this comic is real good, if you have decent taste. I dunno, maybe you just read Archie or some shit. That's cool too, I guess.

criminal:bad night? NOT IF YOU READ THIS!

2009-02-01T15:38:00.003-05:00

criminal vol. 4 came out this week.i re-read the story therein and it is still fuckin awesome.all the volumes are seperate stories.....you dont have to read them in any order.if you're not reading criminal then fuck you.

Angel of Death

2009-01-17T15:33:00.006-05:00

I'm gonna call this awesome already! Angel of Death is an online series that will air on-line on Sony pictures CRACKLE site.Zoe bell (stunt woman premiere,baddest in Death Proof!) plays Zoe,a hit woman who suffers some extreme head trauma causes her to see the ghosts of people she's killed......and they want revenge! To get herself some peace she starts killing of the people who originally contracted her...or she's hallucinating,crazy, and on a rampage! Either way, seems awesome to me!Starting in February the episodes will be 8-10 min. and premiere every week for ten weeks.I think my rabid respect and fandom for exploitation films and Mr.Brubaker is no secret, show yer support.watch these as they premiere and scwoop up the inevitable DVD later this year! they'll be like a video comic issue every week!talk to yer fiends about it!come into the comic shop and yell with us about what happened each week,and what will happen next! I expect hilarity,brutal action,and great line delivery!

Angel of Death

2009-01-17T14:33:00.010-05:00

Written by Ed Brubaker
I'm gonna call this awesome already! It's an online series that will debut on sony pictures "CRACKLE" site.Zoe bell (stuntwoman premiere,baddest in Death Proof!) plays Zoe,a hitwoman who suffers some extreme head trauma (see fig.1) that causes her to see the ghosts of people she's killed......and they want revenge! To get herself some peace she starts killing of the people who originally contracted her...or she's hallucinating,crazy, and on a rampage! Either way, seems awesome to me!The episodes will be 8-10 min. and premiere every week for ten weeks.I think my rabid respect and fandom for exploitation films and Mr.Brubaker is no secret, show yer support.watch these as they premiere and scwoop up the ineveitable dvd later this year! they'll be like a video comic issue every week!talk to yer fiends about it!come into the comic shop and yell with us about what happened each week,and what will happen next! I expect hilarity,brutal action,and great line delivery!

FIGURE 1

2009-01-09T14:23:00.001-05:00

ALRIGHT!!! did y'all see that! nixon is president!third term! world wide nuclear war is ineveitable! the owl is a dumpy man longing for his glory days! the comedian is shooting at JFK! things that are only hinted at in the comic are fully expanded on the screen.....i think! we'll see,and by that i mean i will definateley be seeing this for sure.....opening day style.and not in a fanboy/comic book anthropoligist way.yes,truly jazzed.i'm excited as a comic and film fan....and i will be making a t-shirt with watchmen written in kanji,yeh thats happening.
-when i first saw this my eyes got big and blank,and my nose started gushing blood.....so pumped i turned into a manga technique to show aroused excitement.whew...its's been quite the morning!

-trailer courtesy of traileraddict

Mister X: Condemned

2008-12-28T15:02:00.006-05:00

Dark Horse has really led the pack this year with a number of tasty offerings to the comic gods. They have inched their way up to become the largest comic publisher that I wouldn't want to describe as a corporation; their motives are pure. Sure, they want to make money--but they make money publishing really top notch art. They appear to have no intentions to slow down in 2009.

To coincide with the release of an all-new 4-issue Mister X mini-series (by Dean Motter himself) DH has released a hardcover collection of the first 13-issue Mister X series (featuring Dave McKean, Seth, the Hernandez Brothers, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin and more!) I have been suckered into scwooping up some really expensive hardcover books, but I was a little reluctant with this one since I wasn't sure I was going to like it; I wasn't even familar with the character until recently.

I decided to dip my toes into the first issue of the new series to make sure I was even interested. I don't want to talk about it. I'll just say that it looks like now I have to buy an $80 hardcover.

Mister X: Condemned #1 (of 4) gets 3.5 (out of 5) demonically possessed children.
-sanford c bledsoe iii

Joker (Azzarello/Bermejo)

2008-12-21T19:18:00.003-05:00

Brian Azzarello pretty much sweats the type of uncomfortable crime fiction where good and bad become grey, where everyone is getting played, and most everyone is going to die. The really neat thing about this Joker book is that it's perfect for fans of Batman comics or fans of Batman movies. Not that those affiliations are mutually exclusive, but there are a lot of folks out there who just don't read comics (for whatever reason), and this book is a perfect segue to convert those who have not discovered the glory of "sequential narrative". At the end of the day, this was just a really good story, with a really creepy villain. It didn't have to be the Joker, necessarilly, but boy was he fucking scary. Bermejo's art doesn't make you any less uncomfortable, and occasionally he takes off the kid gloves and throws in a nasty fully-painted panel.

A must read for fans of Criminal, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer, Scalped, etc.

4 (out of 5) wounded children,

-sanford c bledsoe iii

so, you've read watchmen........

2008-12-21T13:39:00.009-05:00

ASTRO CITY-CONFESSION and TARNISHED ANGEL
w-kurt busiek a-brent anderson

hey man,watchmen was totally sweet wasn't it! maybe you're like "aw crud what's next?" well check out this Astro City! its phenomenally scripted by Kurt Busiek (dude wrote Marvels!) and he does superheroes as Extra-ordinary folks who do extraordinary things.start with "confession" for a wholly original take on the batman/robin dichotomy! "Tarnished Angel" follows multiple felon "steeljack" as he's released from prison and determined to go straight.He has no where to go,can't get a job on account of him being a career criminal and his flesh being 100% steel.He ends up in the slums of astro city where all of his former friends and partners in crime live.....and someone is killing them one by one.The law doesn't care at all because they're all criminals and steeljack is hired to find the killer.Problem is steeljack is no detective and is hired 'cause he's pretty much invincible.It's great mystery but its totally from the point of view of a terrible investigator.What steeljack lacks in brains he makes up for in heart...he really wants to stop his friends from getting murdered.Oh,and Steeljack's appearence is based off of one the greatest actors and faces in film history,Robert Mitchum.He has a face that has seen rough times and still has optimism,this is a perfect "cherry on top" to get the right "noir when its down on its luck" feel.awesome.

-5 outta 5 perfectley made bloody marys.

Invincible Iron Man #8

2008-12-17T15:58:00.005-05:00

w-matt fraction a-salvador larroca marvel comics $3.99
dude this ish of iron man so effing sweet!last week i was real hyped up for what "dark reign" would do to invincible iron man since marvel made it the core iron man book,.......and it totally fuckin' delivered! the issue is the set up for one of the illest mistaken-identity espionage/action movies,and the dude everybody wants ice is IRON MAN! Im not excited much about the company wide bannering of "dark reign" but it is making tony stark an underdog which is awesome.this might even cleanse tony out of "complete asshole" fallout from civil war.

- matt fraction writes Tony Stark as a dude who puts on a suit not a robot with a human inside. GO GO GO FRACTION ACTION!
-salvador larroca-all the tech looks amazing! (OOH!they have this really fresh technique of showing tonys face through the armor so you can actually see HIS emotions!its badass.)
-the color is amazing here as well.i kinda finally noticed it.my apologies Mr.Frank D'Armata.
-this is an amazing place to start reading up on this piece.WORD.

Secret Invasion Dark Reign

2008-12-12T14:50:00.005-05:00

w-Brian Micheal Bendis a-Alex Maleev published by marvel comics $3.99
Five dudes (one who is dressed like a woman) hang out in a room with no windows and stare and a gorgeous scantily clad woman.I need a $4.23 comic to do this? I call that saturday night.

- Alex Maleev really phones it on this one.Maybe he was trying a new style but it ends up looking like half photocopied uh...photos.
- All jokes aside, this was kind of a cool issue.It was all talking and set up but got me kind of curious as to what is gonna pop up next in the marvel universe.
(the inevietable answer is "WHATEVER THEY WANT" )
-I really want to love you marvel you just have to love me back.
- Some things are revealed and alls im saying is that Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man is going to get REALLY good.The collection of issues 1-7 just came out and #8 drops this wednesday.Get it.

Tommysaurus Rex!!

2008-12-02T14:51:00.003-05:00

w/a- Doug tenapel published by image comics,2004 $11.95
Doug tenapel is the creator of the earthworm jim videogame series.much like those games which included loads of bathroom humor and challenging gameplay; Tommysaurus Rex is comic suitable for most ages while still having some real substance to it.Ely is a young boy who finds a A FRICKIN T-REX in a cave on his grampas farmland!Ely christens him Tommysaurus and they become fast friends under the judgemental watch of the small town.Families are united,lives are saved,lessons are learned,and the local fauna are rejuvenated by the copious amounts of T-rex turds!By the last page of this book i was leaking from my eye....uh cuz there was somethin' in it....yeah.Much like one my favorite comics of '08 "the Amulet", Tommy Rex (yeh,we're homies now) is mostly appropriate for all ages and is immediately accessible and enjoyable for everybody.

- Mr.Tenapel's work is always top ranking.in the vault's continuing effort to read anything that could be cool for kids,im reading everything by him again and im going bonkers for it.get used to posts like this.

Have You Read Young Liars?

2008-11-19T12:11:00.004-05:00

Who forgot to blog about Young Liars? That shit will get you FIRED. Reading Young Liars is like getting kicked in the nuts by a super-hot chick whose foot is wrapped in hundred dollar bills. From writer David Lapham (Stray Bullets, Murder Me Dead). A bunch of twenty-somethings conspire against one another, plot thefts, drink too much and tell horrible lies. This book is super graphic and makes me feel a little nauseous sometimes, but I love it.

READ IT, IF YOU HAVEN'T.

Unknown Soldier #1

2008-11-19T11:55:00.004-05:00

Originally appearing in 1966 from prolific Silver Age writer Robert Kanigher, Vertigo has just released an updated, socially relevant, kick-ass redux in association with Joshua Dysart (Swamp Thing, Violent Messiahs) and Alberto Ponticelli (Sam & Twitch, Various). This is one of the best first issues I've read in ever. Child soldiers, gun-play, social commentary, the Motherland, etc.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!